The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne. April 13, 2015.
Victimized - again
“It was supposed to be in two years.”
Imagine Dawn Hillyer’s surprise when she happened to learn that the man convicted of stalking her was going to get out of prison last week - instead of in 2017.
“My next chapter was in two years. Not today. Not Thursday,” she told The Journal Gazette’s Rebecca S. Green.
Michael McClellan was convicted in 2012 of stalking Hillyer.
They had dated for a while after meeting on a computer-dating site. But a few months after they broke up, McClellan began calling and texting her incessantly. According to testimony at his trial, McClellan used his knowledge of computer systems to hack Hillyer’s email and leave threatening voice mails for her and co-workers. His ex-wife testified to a similar pattern of harassment.
As Green reported last week, the prosecutor’s office had warned Hillyer that as long as he got credit for good behavior, McClellan was likely to only serve half his 10-year sentence. That would have meant a release date in 2017.
But McClellan was able to earn a bachelor’s degree from Grace College, which required the Indiana Department of Correction to award him even more time-served credit. So instead of serving five years, McClellan only had to serve three years, requiring the DOC to release him last week.
“We found out purely by accident,” said Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards. The Indiana Department of Corrections contacted her office to ask about conditions of his release. Prosecutors then called to alert Hillyer.
Spokesman Doug Garrison said the DOC sent Hillyer an email when it became clear that McClellan would be released, though Hillyer said she did not receive it.
The problem, Garrison explained, is that the state law that requires the prison system to notify crime victims 45 days before the release of a perpetrator doesn’t cover stalking victims.
So when McClellan received extra credit by earning his degree, the DOC could not delay his release to ensure that Hillyer had 45 days’ notice.
“It seems like it’s just an oversight,” Garrison said. “Apparently, (stalking) just got left out of the law.”
If stalking were covered, the prison would be able to extend a prisoner’s stay to ensure that victims receive notification.
That seems like an easy fix for the legislature to take up.
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The Indianapolis Star. April 12, 2015.
Wave of heroin abuse pounding Indiana; swift action needed
It’s an outbreak of staggering proportion.
In southeastern Indiana’s Scott County, home to fewer than 24,000 people, more than 95 people - residents and others with ties to the county - have been diagnosed as HIV positive since December. In each of those cases, the infection has been tied to a surge in intravenous drug abuse.
Gov. Mike Pence, in response to the outbreak, declared a public health emergency in late March and authorized a temporary needle exchange program in the county. Although at times politically controversial, needle exchanges are widely embraced in the public health and medical communities as an effective tool for reducing the spread of potentially deadly diseases, including HIV.
So Pence’s Scott County order is a welcome step. But it’s just a start in confronting what is fast becoming an epidemic of heroin abuse in the state.
The rise in heroin abuse, which already has destroyed thousands of Hoosiers’ lives, is of deep concern to many judges, police, doctors and other state and local authorities. They see every week, in some cases every day, the devastation that heroin abuse has unleashed on individuals, families and entire communities.
And thus far, the state’s response to that devastation has been inadequate.
Still needed is a clear, powerful statewide public awareness campaign that highlights the extreme dangers associated with heroin use. The campaign needs to be targeted in particular to young adults - and their families - in an attempt to reduce demand for opiates. Older generations were long ago exposed to the horrific consequences of heroin abuse, but that message has been lost among many younger Hoosiers, especially those in small towns and suburbs.
Also needed is a review of existing drug laws. Some public safety and public health officials say that the surge in opiate use is an unintended consequence of the state’s crackdown on prescription drug abuse. State leaders need to implement strategies that actually reduce drug use, rather than pushing addicts from one drug to another.
Another important step: Senate Bill 406, authored by Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, would allow friends and families of addicts to obtain medications to treat potential overdoses. Doctors could prescribe, with immunity, such medications without having to examine addicts. And ambulances and other emergency vehicles would be required to carry medications for treating heroin overdoses. The Senate passed the bill unanimously, and the House and governor now need to make it a priority in the final weeks of the legislative session.
Finally, the governor and his public health team need to extend indefinitely the needle exchange in Scott County. And to permit such exchanges anywhere in the state where local authorities deem them necessary. Too many lives are at stake to hold back on using a well-established tactic for slowing the spread of HIV.
Indiana still has an opportunity to get ahead of the wave of heroin abuse sweeping across the state. But quick and thorough action is needed.
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The Times, Munster. April 12, 2015.
Don’t repeal common construction wage law
Legislation to repeal the common construction wage in Indiana got a lot more complicated last week. It’s further evidence of the need to let House Bill 1019 die.
HB 1019 would repeal the common construction wage statute that sets pay rates for construction jobs on major public works projects.
Amendments to the bill last week would establish a host of new bureaucratic requirements for construction firms in a state where eliminating red tape is an important goal.
Payroll records would have to be kept for three years, employers would have to maintain an ongoing training program for employees, contractors would have to be qualified by the Department of Administration or Department of Transportation for any public works project - the list goes on and on.
All of this is an attempt to save a bad bill, to eliminate a program that works well.
HB 1019 could be headed to a summer study committee, which wouldn’t be a bad fate.
The Legislative Services Agency fiscal analysis of the bill shows there are many unanswered questions about eliminating the wage mechanism.
But listen to the benefits of keeping it in place: “Some studies suggest that these types of prevailing wage systems lead to greater efficiency, quality and safety by providing for a stable, well-trained labor force. If such benefits were not realized due to the repeal of prevailing wage requirements, public institutions may experience an increase in costs relating to these factors in the long run. Also, some studies suggest that prevailing wage systems, by increasing the wage to affected workers, increases the overall tax base due to higher incomes and consumption,” the agency’s report on HB 1019 said.
In a state where per-capita income is lower than the national average, legislation to lower construction workers’ pay is the wrong approach. No wonder mayors throughout the state oppose this legislation.
It’s not just a labor issue. Construction companies don’t like it, either.
Either kill this bill outright or send it to a summer study committee where the folly of this legislation can be easily shown.
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South Bend Tribune. April 8, 2015.
Expand needle exchange program
A needle exchange program that began last weekend to help end the HIV epidemic linked to intravenous drug use in southeastern Indiana was the right call.
But the state must do more in response to this public health crisis.
Last month, Gov. Mike Pence signed an emergency executive order that allowed officials in Scott County to implement a needle exchange program, which allows injection drug users to trade in their dirty needles for clean ones. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sent a team to the region to help combat the outbreak, endorses needle exchange programs as an effective way to halt the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C. A study by the World Health Organization reported that the programs “substantially and cost effectively reduce the spread of HIV among people who inject drugs and do so without evidence of exacerbating injecting drug use at either the individual or societal level.”
Pence’s order applies only to that particular county and will last for 30 days. The state will also send resources to Scott County to help register for the Healthy Indiana Plan - which covers HIV testing and treatment - and offer vaccinations for preventable diseases associated with IV drug use, such as hepatitis.
The outbreak in Scott County, which typically sees about five such cases in a year, demanded action. To his credit, the governor acted despite his longstanding opposition to needle exchange programs, which he has made clear hasn’t changed. “I don’t believe effective anti-drug policy involves handing out drug paraphernalia,” Pence said.
But the state’s response doesn’t go far enough. Among the factors that experts attribute to the crisis in Scott County are a lack of public education about HIV prevention, a lack of available testing locations and no statewide exchange. In general, cuts to health care funding leave some communities ill-equipped to respond to such emergencies.
A proposal approved last week by an Indiana House committee would allow the top 23 counties with the highest rate per population of hepatitis C to establish their own needle exchange program. State Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, who initially pushed to allow needle exchanges in all 92 counties, says, “We’re trying to contain something that is already out of control. We ought to be enacting policies that help keep things from getting out of control in the first place.”
Clere is right. The need to be proactive is underscored by a warning from Beth Meyerson, co-director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at Indiana University. Meyerson says that many other rural areas in Indiana also lack HIV testing resources, that 20 percent of people who are positive do not know it, and that she wouldn’t be surprised if in the coming months the situation spreads.
In a news release announcing the emergency declaration, Pence said that “This is not a Scott County problem; this is an Indiana problem.” The governor should back those words by supporting the expansion of the needle exchange program throughout the state.
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