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Holcomb signs bill to help incarcerated Hoosiers receive help for mental health and addiction
A bill signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb last Thursday will help many incarcerated Hoosiers gain easier access to treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.
House Bill 1006, a priority of House Republicans this legislative session, easily moved through both chambers with bipartisan support: 91-0 in the House; 39-7 in the Senate.
What’s happening
HB 1006 will formally create a mental health referral program for people who are in jail.
Sheriffs, prosecutors and defense attorneys will be able to petition the courts to request that someone in jail be provided a mental health assessment.
Then, after the assessment, judges could refer the incarcerated person to a mental health provider as a condition of release before a trial or plea agreement. For people accused of violent crimes, the services could be provided inside secure facilities, such as the ones operated by the Department of Correction or the Division of Mental Health and Addiction.
“We wanted to make sure they got treated, but in a secure environment,” Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, who carried the legislation, told State Affairs in January. “We’ve made provisions for anybody with a mental illness to be treated.”
The bill also clarifies state law around immediate and emergency detentions, which are the processes used to detain someone — such as a person who is threatening to harm themselves — against their will.
Additional language added to the bill since its first draft will ensure doctors are more involved in the process.
Why it matters
For years, the majority of Indiana’s jails have been overcrowded because they have become the de facto mental health facilities in many Indiana counties.
At least 70% of the people in Indiana’s jails are believed to have a mental illness or addiction, according to estimates by Indiana sheriffs.
Many need access to drug treatment and medicine, such as buprenorphine or methadone. Additionally, some have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness.
“Our system was literally broken,” Steve Luce, a former sheriff who is now executive director of the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association, told State Affairs in January. “The jail is not set up to take care of these individuals. It’s for pretrial individuals. Our facilities cannot handle these types of individuals over time.”
It can lead to devastating outcomes.
A 2021 IndyStar investigation found that a Hoosier was dying inside a county jail on average every two weeks over more than 10 years. The leading cause of death was suicide, IndyStar found, which amounted to 42% of the deaths. Three in 4 of those deaths occurred in jails that were flagged by state inspectors as overcrowded, understaffed or both.
What’s next
Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, praised the bill on the floor of the House this session, but he raised a familiar concern from prior years.
He said local communities will need adequate funding from the General Assembly. He issued a request to his fellow lawmakers: Please continue funding mental health providers throughout the state.
“If we can do that,” Pierce said, “we will really revolutionize what happens in our criminal justice system and what we see happening in the streets of our communities.”
Holcomb’s signing means the bill will become law in July.
Contact Ryan Martin on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or at [email protected].
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Header image: Indiana lawmakers hope to fix overcrowded jails and mental health treatment. (Credit: Brittney Phan for State Affairs)
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A banner week for investment within Indiana has capped off the state’s biggest financial quarter in recent history, as three major companies agreed to deals estimated to bring in billions of dollars.
The state has long advertised itself as business-friendly, and its chief executive appeared thrilled by the week’s news.
“This is about $15 billion in about 72 hours,” Gov. Eric Holcomb told reporters on Friday. “This used to take four years to achieve.”
One announced project, an $11 billion Amazon Web Services data center in north-central Indiana, is the biggest single investment in the state’s history.
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“Our economy is on fire,” Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg said.
His agency, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., negotiated the deals. The state is offering millions of dollars in tax incentives in order to create some 1,500 new jobs.
“These industries bring generational change for families, putting more money in their pockets and allowing them the opportunity to have a better quality of life on their own,” Rosenberg said.
The projects
Amazon’s new data center will be built near New Carlisle. It’s expected to bring in at least 1,000 new jobs in the artificial intelligence and cloud storage sectors. No timetable for completion of the project was given.
According to Amazon, the company has invested $21.5 billion in Indiana since 2010, creating 26,000 full- and part-time jobs.
Google’s new data center will hire up to 200 new workers, the tech giant said, “in the coming years.”
Toyota will build a new assembly line that will assemble battery-operated SUVs by the end of 2025. It expects to add up to 340 new jobs to the plant, which Toyota said now employs more than 7,500.
The company has spent $8 billion on the Princeton plant since breaking ground in 1996, Toyota said.
The new projects’ figures represent early estimates and could change as they move forward.
Incentives aren’t the only factor
Rosenberg praised the Indiana General Assembly for passing legislation that allows the state to offer sales tax exemptions as a lure for new businesses. Both Amazon and Google will receive such boosts, and the Amazon project could receive up to $100 million in additional credits based on various incentives.
But Rosenberg stressed tax breaks are only part of the equation as the state looks to compete internationally.
“We don’t have to have the highest offer because we bring the university partners, the state and local governments, utilities — everyone around the table to make sure that company has what they need,” he said.
The Google project, for example, includes partnerships with Ivy Tech Community College on a new job training program and Indiana Michigan Power to bring clean energy resources to the local grid.
Recruiting new industries
Rosenberg said tech recruitment has been a particular focus for the IEDC, as Indiana is looking to provide an “ecosystem” for these companies to thrive off one another. The state’s semiconductor facilities will provide the materials needed for these new data centers, he noted.
Recruiting new business takes anywhere between six months to several years. Zoning, road construction, utilities and more need to be worked out ahead of time.
The IEDC has been on a hot streak, Rosenberg said. During the agency’s first 11 years, it secured just under $50 billion in new projects. It has now pulled in more than $71 billion since the beginning of 2022.
In the first four months of 2024, $20.68 billion has been pledged to projects in Indiana — the most for a quarter since IEDC’s founding in 2005.
‘Strong partners for the Indiana economy’
“The key is that these investments represent long-lasting and continued commitment to being strong partners for the Indiana economy,” said Andrew Butters, an associate professor of business economics and public policy at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
Large companies came out of the pandemic looking to reorient their supply chains, Butters said, and some states have reaped the benefits of projects that might have previously moved overseas.
Indiana has been able to compete by selling its location, workforce, labor force participation in addition to offering incentives, Butters said.
“I would not be shocked to see more of these as the state attempts to transition toward more high-tech and high-skill industries,” Butters said.
Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].