The following is the second part of a three-part series on jail capacity, crime and punishment and personal liberty.

WARSAW — When a person is convicted of a crime that warrants a jail or prison sentence, those outside of the law enforcement or criminal justice community might believe that placing that person in a jail cell is as simple slapping down the gavel and imposing the sentence.

Alternatives To Jail Bars

Through programs such as work release and community corrections, inmates, if approved, can serve their sentences while still working. Those participants either are monitored with ankle bracelets and travel to and from work while remaining home, or stay at the county’s work-release facility on the east side of Warsaw and also have the opportunity to enjoy employment. According to Kosciusko County Sheriff Kyle Dukes, these options are often favorable because some offenders owe restitution to the county, state or to victims.

“Working with community corrections and probation and (County Prosecutor) Dan Hampton, that’s helped with a couple of situations,” said Dukes. “There’s got to be 70 percent of the jails right now in the state of Indiana that are maxed out or over-crowded. So, you’ve got to start thinking outside of the box and you’ve got to start working with the judges and the prosecutors, community corrections and probation and work release. We have a work release center too, that we’re looking at people who are currently incarcerated for property crimes. Let’s get them out of jail and let’s get them in work release.”

Dukes explained his definition of a property crime.

“A property crime is if I would damage your property and restitution means I owe you money,” said Dukes. “So we’re looking at still holding these people accountable, but also getting them jobs and letting them still start paying back the victims here.”

At a recent county council meeting, Dukes said he collaborated with Jail Commander Shane Coney to reduce the jail census by flip-flopping sentences. The plan is reverse jail terms for inmates who carry sentences with both the county jail and with the Indiana Department of Corrections.

“It’s not that we don’t want them to do county time because we’re holding people accountable, but at the end of the day, prisons have the room,” said Dukes. “That’s where they need to be going.”

Coney said the goal is to “get them out of here and let them do their 10 years or whatever they have to do at DOC and then let them come back here.”

While Dukes and Coney do what they can to keep the jail population manageable, prosecutors also have a role and must walk a tight rope between protecting the right of the accused and also to protect the community.

In the third and final part of the series, personal liberty, the rights of all men and women accused of a crime and the public safety will be addressed.