Fri., Apr. 25, 2014

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IDS FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014

Queen of the hive Page 2

INDIANA DAILY STUDENT | IDSNEWS.COM

New legislation to curb overcrowding of Indiana prisons BY DENNIS BARBOSA dbarbosa@indiana.edu @DennisBarbosa86

New legislation to revise Indiana criminal offense classifications will go into effect this July in an effort to reduce prison overcrowding. House Bill 1006 amends the current criminal code so that felony charges will be filed into 1 to 6 levels as opposed to the current A to D classes. The enacted law will undergo two phases, said Doug Garrison, Indiana Department of Correction chief communications officer. Starting July 1 of this year, inmates serving 90 days of incarceration will not be accepted into state prisons. Starting July 1, 2015, inmates serving one year or less of incarceration will not be accepted into state prisons. Data released by the American Legislative Exchange Council shows IDOC currently spends about $618 million on inmates per year, given that there are about 30,000 inmates incarcerated in the IDOC system with $20,761 allotted for each inmate, according to the most recent IDOC statistics. The annual budget for IDOC is about $500 million. “The aim of the legislation is that it levels off the rise in our prison population,” Garrison said. “As we have studied the way our prison population has been rising over the last number of years we anticipate that if it doesn’t stop rising that we’ll have to build new prisons.” IDOC data also showed as of December 2013, prisons were under capacity by 3 percent for adult men and by 5 percent for adult women. Between January 2012 and January of this year, prison populations increased by 1,074 inmates. In the past, the IDOC had difficulty working with low-level felons who only serve short amounts of time in prison, Garrison said. The new legislation is designed to defer level 6 felons back to the community for reentry into society. Level 6 felons can earn day-forday good time credit, resulting in a 50-percent reduction in imprisonment time for good behavior. For example, if a felon is sentenced to two years imprisonment, the inmate may be deferred back to community corrections under the presumption of earned good time credit.

ScHooled

Crowded The number of inmates in Indiana prisons have climbed in the past two decades. Legislation will go into effect in July to address the problem of overcrowding.

1993 14,470 inmates 2003 23,069 inmates 2013 29,377 inmates SOURCE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS IKE HAJINAZARIAN | IDS

ScHoolboy Q performs at the Little 500 concert Thursday at the IU Auditorium.

Levels 1-5 felons cannot earn day-for-day good time credit, according to the new legislation. Instead, they can earn a one-day sentence reduction for every three days of good behavior, as opposed to just one day of good behavior. If the felon displays bad behavior, good time credit can be reduced to one-day sentence reduction for every six days or no good time credit at all. Level 6 felons will be diverted back to the community according to actual time of incarceration and not amount of sentencing, Garrison said. “Diverting them back into community programs where they could be in, for example, a community transition program or a community corrections program or perhaps a work release, that would better serve the criminal justice community by maybe keeping people out of prison that didn’t necessarily need to be in prison,” Garrison said. Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed reporting.

ScHoolBoy Q performs at auditorium BY MICHELA TINDERA mtindera@indiana.edu

At 9:15 p.m., opening act Isaiah Rashad peeled off his shirt and lit a cigarette in the same place Meryl Streep received her honorary doctoral degree from the University a little more than a week ago. Within the hour, Union Board’s official Little 500 performer ScHoolBoy Q would be performing at the IU Auditorium. Men in bucket hats and basketball jerseys and women in crop tops screamed in anticipation. He came on stage close to 10 p.m. and after introducing himself, opened with his popular single “Hands On The Wheel.” “Excited is an understatement,” freshman Melissa Broaddas said before the show. Before getting on stage he tweeted from his account, @ScHoolBoyQ, “Bout to Hit da stage!!!!!! Go #HOOSIERS.” Freshman Kersea Gable came to the concert with a high school friend, Tommy Green. “We kinda freaked out,” Gable said. “We were sitting there waiting in front of

the computer until the tickets went on sale.” During the concert, ScHoolBoy Q played other songs such as “Collard Greens” from his 2014 album “Oxymoron” that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart. It sold 139,000 copies in the week ending March 2 and was the largest debut album since Eminem’s “Marshall Mathers LP 2” came out in November of last year. The auditorium was nearly sold out for the concert. The venue can hold about 3,300 people. IU Auditorium representatives said they sold all but some seats of the “obstructed view” seating in the balcony. Freshman Shantanece Ellis and Broaddus said they bought their tickets half an hour after they went on sale. Opening acts for the show began at around 8 p.m. starting with all California-based acts, Audio Push, Vince Staples and then Isaiah Rashad. They performed samples of their own music as well as covers of Snoop Dogg’s SEE SCHOOLBOY, PAGE 6

IU employees affected by tax fraud BY KATHRINE SCHULZE schulzek@indiana.edu @Kathrine_Schulze

NICOLE KRASEAN | IDS

General Colin Powell headlines the Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington's 11th Annual O'Bannon Institute for Community Service. The event took place Thursday night at the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center.

Former Sec. of State speaks at Ivy Tech BY EMILY ERNSBERGER emelerns@indiana.edu @emilyernsberger

Ivy Tech Community CollegeBloomington’s fundraiser for the Center of Civic Engagement brought in a renowned civic leader Thursday night. Secretary of State. Four-star army general. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, twice. Statesman Colin Powell spoke at a sold-out event at the Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center. Powell’s speech was a part of Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington’s O’Bannon Institute for Community Service,

a three-day event celebrating the service done by the school. The former Secretary of State was the keynote speaker for the institute’s fundraising dinner, which raises money for Ivy Tech’s Center for Civic Engagement. Powell’s speech focused on leadership and his stances on the many issues facing the United States and the rest of the world, including wealth distribution, health care, the Ukraine and Crimean incidents and immigration reform. He emphasized that the United States has the power to fix its issues. SEE POWELL, PAGE 6

IU employees were alerted they might be vulnerable to tax fraud in an email sent Thursday to faculty, staff and temporary employees. Multiple IU offices have received reports from faculty and staff who have been unable to file their 2013 tax returns electronically because someone has already filed a fraudulent tax return using their personal information, according to the email. “This tax fraud is basically a form of identity theft,” Mark Land, director of IU Communications, said. Tax fraud is a rapidly increasing form of fraud. 1.6 million fraudulent returns were filed with the IRS in the first six months of 2013, the email said, citing a recent article in the Boston

Globe. Only 271,000 cases were reported in all of 2010. While IU employees have been affected by tax fraud, it’s not a result of a computer breach through the University, according to the email. According to the University Information Security and Policy Offices’ website, it has received approximately 25 reports from faculty and staff who have experienced fraudulent 2013 federal tax returns. These cases have been reported to the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and the IRS. “This is not an attack on IU,” Land said. “This is just something that happened to IU.” However, if employees becomes a victim of tax fraud there are resources they can use to help protect their identity. There are three major credit

bureaus in the U.S.: Trans Union, Experian and Equifax. Any of these bureaus can alert people if someone applies for new credit in their name. “All we can try to do is to provide general information,” Land said. Jerry Minger is the University director of public safety. In his email, he advised employees who experience a tax fraud issue to file a report with the IU Police Department. If they are Indiana residents, they may also want to request a security freeze on their credit report, according to the email. That way, it’s more difficult for credit accounts to be opened in their name without their knowledge. Information about requesting a security freeze can be found at http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/2411.htm.

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New rehab facility PAGE 4

On the sidelines PAGE 7

800 lb. Gorilla to play PAGE 9


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Fri., Apr. 25, 2014 by Indiana Daily Student - idsnews - Issuu