Recidivism's revolving door crowds Monroe County jail and the criminal court docket
The dive into recidivism often starts small, with a failed drug test, a missed probation officer visit, a misdemeanor arrest. Sometimes, it's being absent from court hearings or violating a judge's order.
These screw-ups generate arrest warrants that bring defendants back to the county jail, where they usually sit in a cellblock unable to get out until they appear before a judge to explain themselves. That can happen the next day, but if a person gets picked up on a Friday, court's not until Monday afternoon.
The days can add up.
Judges have options that depend on the severity of the violation and the case. They can chastise the defendant and send them on their way, order treatment or set a bond. They might revoke all or a portion of a previously suspended jail sentence.
In 2019, probation violations were the fourth highest offense against people incarcerated at the Monroe County Correctional Center. First on the list, according to the jail's 2019 annual report, was driving while intoxicated, followed by placement violations and failure to appear in court.
Robert Ratts: father, felon, aspiring rap musician, recidivist. He's all of these things.
Ratts can tell you all about being a criminal who reoffends, over and over. There was a time when he didn't know what "recidivism" meant. Today, he recognizes his life of crime defines the word.
Part 1'It was outdated when they built it': Why Monroe County is 'past due' on a new jail
Twenty years of trouble
Ratts has been in and out of Monroe County's criminal justice system the past two decades. He's spent a lot of time behind bars at the local jail, and twice was sent to state prison.
"Look at me. I've got tattoos on my face, on my hands, all of them from when I was in jail," he said during an interview, holding his crudely inked hands out, turning them palms up, then down. They brand him as an addict.
"I was addicted to heroin, and I would've done anything, and I did, to support my habit."
Ratts was 18 when he was arrested in Bloomington the first time, in the summer of 2001, for dealing in what was represented to be a controlled substance and possession of marijuana. The dealing charge got reduced to attempted dealing. Ratts pleaded guilty.
In December of that year, a judge sentenced the teen to three years in jail, and suspended all but six months on home supervision. After that, he would be on probation for two and a half years.
But in April 2002, a warrant went out for Ratts' arrest for violating home detention. The probation department filed a petition to revoke his suspended sentence, known as a "PTR." The judge could revoke the suspended time and send him to jail. Police arrested Ratts the day after the warrant was issued.
It's here his fall into recidivism begins.
Jail, release, violation, arrest, repeat
Ratts was in jail with no bond, standard practice for many probation violations. A trial before a judge was set five weeks out. Monroe County public defender Stuart Baggerly asked bond be set, but the judge denied the request.
Ratts spent a month in the county jail before admitting to the home detention violation. The judge ordered Ratts to spend 238 days at a facility that helps offenders manage substance abuse and other issues that land them in jail. After, Ratts was to spend another 104 days on house arrest.
He was still on probation in September 2004 when he violated the terms again. Another PTR was filed, and Ratts was arrested in January 2005. He spent five weeks in jail before admitting to the violation. A judge extended Ratts' probation to December 2005 and released him.
All was well until December 2007, when Ratts got arrested in Morgan County for possession of a narcotic drug and possession of marijuana. He pleaded guilty to the first charge, a felony, and the marijuana case was dismissed.
He was sentenced in September 2008 to three years in jail, again. It was suspended except for 200 days on house arrest, with two years of probation after.
After three months, another probation violation resulted in another petition to revoke. Ratts was arrested Dec. 30 and spent the first week of 2009 behind bars. During a court hearing on Jan. 7 that year, he admitted the violation and spent another six weeks at the Morgan County Jail. His probation was extended to September 2011.
"Any further violations of probation will result in probation revocation and commitment to the Department of Correction for the rest of the three years," the court docket reads.
In August 2009, just six months after his release in Morgan County, another PTR was filed. Ratts was arrested in January 2010 and appeared in court a month later. He admitted the violation.
And as the judge had promised, Ratts was sent to a state prison to serve the remaining 893 days of his time.
He got out in the fall of 2012, then collected three driving while suspended arrests in 2013. In September of that year, he chalked up a fourth driving while suspended charge, in addition to felony charges of domestic battery and neglect of a dependent. Because he was on probation for the driving while suspended cases, another PTR sent Ratts back to prison.
He was 31 years old.
Since then, he's had 15 felony cases filed in Monroe County. Fifteen felonies in 9 years, Ratts is a poster boy for recidivism.
More people with more arrests
The revolving door of recidivism is not new to America's criminal justice system, nor to Monroe County, where half of the people who spent time incarcerated at the local jail in 2018 were booked in more than once that year.
The trend has worsened over time. A decade earlier, in 2008, 41% of local jail book-ins were for people arrested more than once.
Annual reports from the Monroe County Jail show there were 757 fewer people entering the jail in 2018 than 2008, but recidivism increased 10%.
During 2018, 2,387 people were booked in. Of those, 605 had two arrests, 206 had three, 64 had four, 31 had five, 17 had six and 12 had seven or more arrests.
A decade earlier, 3,308 people were booked in. Of those, 531 had two arrests, 193 had three, 69 had four, 21 had five, 11 had six and 20 had seven or more arrests.
The arrest numbers were examined as part of a 2020 criminal justice and incarceration study of Monroe County conducted by Kenneth A. Ray Justice Services LLC. Among concerns raised is the recidivism rate for local inmates.
A second analysis the county commissioned from criminal justice consultant Eve Hill echoed worry about recidivism at the jail.
Hill's assessment of strengths and gaps in the workings of the local criminal justice system noted inmates have few opportunities to participate in mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
Jail commander Sam Crowe and others have been advocating for more of these programs as the pandemic eases. But there's no space at the overcrowded jail.
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Hill's review said people leave the jail without connections to treatment and other services, which "leads to a cycle of relapse and recidivism." She said families suffer as well when loved ones return home from jail since they "often do not have the tools they need to provide support in preventing recidivism."
Housing is key to keeping people out of jail, Hill wrote, and reentry plans should address short- and long-term housing, because "released prisoners who do not have stable housing arrangements are more likely to return to prison."
Hill's report also urged local corrections officials to consider alternatives to arrest for probation violations, which is the fourth most common charge in arrests.
During a recent meeting of Monroe County officials who are planning to build a new jail facility within the next three years, recidivism was named as an issue that must be addressed to reduce the number of people behind bars.
"What we know from the Ray report is that recidivism is a big problem," county councilman Peter Iversen said. "I do think we need to do everything we can to keep people out of the jail in the beginning, but we also need to make sure there is not a revolving door."
'We don't give up on anyone'
A big part of reducing the number of people cycling in and out of jail lies in fewer being incarcerated for violations resulting in probation revocations and court cases being reopened.
For 37 years, Monroe County Chief Probation Officer Linda Brady has overseen the evolution of probation and community corrections. She's invested in and hopeful about a project aimed at reducing the number of people who end up in jail because of a probation revocation.
Monroe County is the smallest of 10 U.S. jurisdictions selected to participate in a nonprofit-funded project called "The Reducing Revocations Challenge." A grant from the national Arnold Ventures nonprofit funded an IU researcher's 2021 study of local probation revocation practices. The study suggested changes that would jail fewer and benefit more people charged with violating terms of their probation.
Of the half million dollars in grant funds, $170,000 went directly to the probation department to implement strategies such as more effective and motivational case management plans, revising and making conditions less punitive, and using incentives including early release from probation for those who comply with programs and stay out trouble.
"If we work on people being successful on probation, fewer of those people will go back to jail," Brady said. "Since most people in the criminal justice system are on probation, if you don't address issues there, you're really missing the mark. We have to decide on what motivators work. We don't give up on anyone."
'Stubbornly high' re-arrest rates
A 2021 report on recidivism from the Council on Criminal Justice found that while the national return-to-prison rate has dropped in recent years, "re-arrest rates remain stubbornly high." It also confirmed that offenders often "age out" of criminal behavior. People released at age 24 or younger were 64% more likely to be reincarcerated. Just 36% of those released at age 40 or older returned to jail.
Adam Gelb is the president and CEO of the organization. He said the probation department's new direction is on track, shored up by research data that proves incentives for good behavior can keep people out of jail.
"This is not the case for everyone, but the most important paradigm shift that needs to happen in reentry is from punishing failure to rewarding success, flipping the system on its head and incentivizing people to do the right thing."
That, combined with standard cognitive behavior treatment, can stem the recidivism rate, Gelb said, reducing it by as much as 30%.
"The cost of failure is so high that in the end, you can't give up," he said. "That's what the guiding principle has to be."
He and Brady know not everyone will complete their probation and carry on with a crime-free life. Brady believes in what she calls the "seed-planting theory," whereby people mired in the system get infused with influences over time that eventually turn their lives around.
Lasting words of wisdom here, a resounding truth there, insights gained in a treatment program, reflections on the losses that accompany being charged with a crime, someone's tragic story told raw at an AA meeting, a stern lecture from a caring judge. These forces combined, she said, just may create a tumbleweed that propels someone in a new direction.
A change of heart
Maybe that's what happened to Robert Ratts. He attributes his change of heart to finally growing weary of being a drug-fueled criminal, and to how his life had slipped away.
He stole from people who trusted him. He signed away parental rights to a baby son. When his mother was in hospice care, she used money from her last Social Security check to bond him out of jail. "There she was dying, and I'm there facing 20 years for dealing meth," he said. "She wrote a letter on my behalf to the judge."
Haunted by life events such as these, Ratts says he's had enough. "I'm not the type that follows a program. I've got my own treatment. When I said, 'I'm done,' that's what worked."
His track record isn't great. But Monroe Circuit Judge Christine Talley Haseman took a chance on Ratts, gave him one heck of a break during a June 16 sentencing hearing. Instead of years in state prison — he pleaded guilty to felonies that included burglary, fraud, intimidation, battery, methamphetamine dealing, theft — Haseman put Ratts on probation for the next 12 years.
A dozen years on probation is unheard of in the local court system. It's a long time for someone like Ratts to stay on the right side of the law.
Over time, he had earned the judge's trust. A year ago, he walked a day and a half from Knox County to Bloomington to attend a court hearing. He couldn't find a ride, and could have been cited for failure to appear if he hadn't shown up.
Instead of making excuses for his criminal ways, Ratts admitted being a heroin addict struggling every day to stay away from drugs. He stood before the judge and said, "Am I going to be sober for the rest of my life? I don't know. What I can tell you is I'm sober today. The crimes were done to buy drugs. I was dope sick. The picture of this man here who was arrested, I'm not that man. I'm not shoving a needle in my neck. I'm not prostituting women out. I'm gainfully employed."
Ratts had turned his life around. He was making $17.46 an hour working the late shift at Lewis Bakeries' bread factory in Vincennes, packaging cinnamon rolls, nine per box, and loaves of thin-sliced Bunny bread. He had a new girlfriend. He was able to visit his daughter, she's 6 now, in Bloomington.
Deputy prosecutor James Rosenberry wasn't so convinced of the transformation Ratts described. He pointed out Ratts has a criminal record dating back 20 years, and argued for a long stint in prison. "His criminal history and the sheer number of offenses in this case support a 12-year sentence. People were victimized," he argued. "And his treatment success has been rocky."
Public defender Noah Williams advocated for his client. "All he wanted was a chance to start putting his life back together, and when he relapsed, he called his lawyer right away. I think he intends to comply (with probation.) He's asking for a chance to keep building in the right direction."
The judge took it all under advisement for 30 days, then put Robert Ratts on probation until June 16, 2034.
He'll be 52 years old.
A 'never-ending revolving door'
The report from Eve Hill urges Monroe County to take action to lower the recidivism rate, which in turn reduces the number of incarcerated people. A major component will be better addressing the needs of people with substance use disorder and with untreated mental health issues that land them in jail.
"In order to reduce jail overcrowding and unnecessary incarceration of its residents, Monroe County must prioritize alternatives to incarceration (diversion) for violation of court-imposed requirements, for substance use violations, for detox, and for mental illness-related offenses," the report states, calling recidivism a destructive force.
"To the extent people cannot be diverted from criminal justice involvement, Monroe County must ensure that the jail operates as a pipeline into treatment, rather than releasing people to the never-ending revolving door of crisis, relapse, and recidivism that destroys lives, families, communities, and county budgets."
A 'permanent state of nonoffending"
The National Institute of Justice has a term for "a permanent state of nonoffending." The word "desistance" acknowledges people released from incarceration who don't violate the rules or break the law to end up back in jail.
"In effect, an individual released from prison will either recidivate or desist," the NIJ websites states. Ratts, until now, always returned to crime.
After 20 years of struggling to stay out of trouble and not succeeding, he's earned a new identifier: a desister, someone who walks away, finally, knock on wood, from a life of breaking the law.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Recidivism contributes to crowding at Monroe County jail
