The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee heard HB 1346 concerning jail overcrowding authored by Rep. Frye. The bill was filed based on recommendations from the Jail Overcrowding Task Force and addressed recommendations regarding data collection for sheriffs, creating a workgroup under the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council (JRAC) to address jail overcrowding, and for a pilot project concerning indigent defense at bail hearings. The bill was amended to provide the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute to receive data from sheriffs concerning jail populations and statistics, adds the review and evaluation of jail overcrowding as a purpose of JRAC and allows JRAC to make recommendations to county sheriffs concerning strategies to address overcrowding and implementing evidence based practices for reducing recidivism, and remove the pilot project.
Testimony on the bill was received from the Indiana Public Defender Commission, Indiana Public Defender Council, and Indiana State Bar Association. The amended bill passed 11-0.
Read the bill at: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2020/bills/house/1346