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[dramatis]

This small Indiana county sends more people to prison than San Francisco and Durham, N.C., combined. Why?

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Donnie Gaddis picked the wrong county to sell 15 oxycodone pills to an undercover officer.

If Mr. Gaddis had been caught 20 miles to the east, in Cincinnati, he would have received a maximum of six months in prison, court records show. In San Francisco or Brooklyn, he would probably have received drug treatment or probation, lawyers say.

But Mr. Gaddis lived in Dearborn County, Ind., which sends more people to prison per capita than nearly any other county in the United States. After agreeing to a plea deal, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

“Years? Holy Toledo — I’ve settled murders for a lot less than that,” said Philip Stephens, a public defender in Cincinnati.

Dearborn County represents the new boom in American prisons: mostly white, rural and politically conservative.

A bipartisan campaign to reduce mass incarceration has led to enormous declines in new inmates from big cities, cutting America’s prison population for the first time since the 1970s. From 2006 to 2014, annual prison admissions dropped 36 percent in Indianapolis; 37 percent in Brooklyn; 69 percent in Los Angeles County; and 93 percent in San Francisco.

But many criminal justice experts say that the size of the disparities undercuts the basic promise of equal protection under the law.

“Letting local prosecutors enforce state laws differently throws all notions of equality under the law out the window,” said Peter Wagner, executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative, which advocates reducing incarceration rates. “This data puts governors and legislative leaders on notice that if they want to put criminal justice reforms into effect, they need to look at how prosecutors use and abuse their discretion.”

The analysis is based on previously unpublished data from the Department of Justice on state prisons, which hold the vast majority of American inmates sentenced to a year or more.

The divide does not appear to be driven by changes in crime, which fell in rural and urban areas at roughly equal rates, according to the F.B.I. Instead, it reflects growing disagreement about how harshly crime should be punished, especially drivers of the criminal justice system like theft, drugs, weapons and drunken driving.

Opioid addiction spread early here. Mr. Negangard, the prosecutor, has fought the heroin crisis by aggressively going after drug crimes.

“If you’re not prosecuting, then you’re de facto legalizing it,” Mr. Negangard said.

Mr. Negangard has faced few obstacles to getting more convictions. He supervises his own police force, an unusual arrangement that allows him to investigate and prosecute most of the county’s serious crime. The police go after even minor drug cases, often offering to dismiss drug possession charges in exchange for information on friends or family members who sell drugs.

In case you're wondering how initiatives to reduce the prison population can be 'bipartisan':

Lawmakers in Indiana, concerned about the rising cost of incarceration, enacted a law that reduced criminal penalties starting in 2014 — one of at least 40 states to approve measures to reduce incarceration in the past few years. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

Charts and more at the link.

Be careful of your local politics.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

rural america sounds like hell on earth

 

[OverBlood 3]

It's incest isn't it.

 

[Guevara]

So equal parts: rural counties have gotten tougher as cities have become more lenient.

Well, criminals, if you're planning on breaking the law, come to San Francisco. A 96% drop in prison admittance! Maybe that's why the city now enjoys the highest property crime rate in the country.

 

[dave is ok]

60 Days In, a show that takes place in an Indiana jail, had an inmate saying he was going to get 12 years for selling a few Lortab on it last night and I figured he was lying. Jesus

 

[rubes7844]

Meanwhile, raping an unconscious girl gets you 3 months

 

[old manatee]

It's incest isn't it.

?

 

[Gotdatmoney]

12 years? That's fucking insane. You shouldnt be able to put anyone in jail that long for selling drugs. Jesus Christ

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

So equal parts: rural counties have gotten tougher as cities have become more lenient.

Well, criminals, if you're planning on breaking the law, come to San Francisco. A 96% drop in prison admittance! Maybe that's why the city now enjoys the highest property crime rate in the country.

That's...not why. SF is well aware why their petty crime rate outpaces the rest of the state.

How's the saying go?

"Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal."

 

[Wag]

It's incest isn't it.

You watched Deliverance last night, didn't you?

 

[StMeph]

To handle the expanded caseload, Dearborn County officials spent $11.5 million to double the size of the local jail and approved $11 million more to expand the county courthouse.

But money for drug treatment is scarce. At least 225 of the 250 inmates in the Dearborn County jail have a drug addiction, estimated Jonathan L. Cleary, a county judge. But drug treatment programs can serve only about 40 of them.

Mr. Negangard said he wished the county could find more money for drug treatment. But he said about half of all addicts in prison had a criminal mind-set and would keep committing crimes whether they got clean or not.

That basically sums up the attitudes of local government.

 

[Rockandrollclown]

I had a friend get busted for a small amount of marijuana there many years ago. He was from Cincinnati and just driving through. I remember speaking with him and he was terrified because going to jail for a considerable amount of time was on the table. Ultimately I think he just got probation and hundreds of hours of community service. Scary to think that he could have ended up with real crazy jail time, and had his life come to an end just like that. There needs to be real federal limits in place on this kind of shit. I take as hardline a stance against heroin dealers as anyone, its destroying a lot of communities around here, but this is completely unjust.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Well, criminals, if you're planning on breaking the law, come to San Francisco. A 96% drop in prison admittance! Maybe that's why the city now enjoys the highest property crime rate in the country.

that could be it, or there could be something else going on in the bay area that leads to crimes of desperation by poor people, we may never be able to adjudicate this.