Monroe County prosecutor candidate Jacob Moore addressed the Kiwanis Club July 24 in State Room West of the Indiana Memorial Union.
Moore spoke about safety issues in the county and the reconfiguration of priority given to crimes.
“Crime is as bad as the risk of injury it presents to people,” he said in a phone interview after the event.
According to Moore, Monroe County allows perpetrators of minor offenses to participate in a pre-trial diversion program up to three times to avoid a criminal record.
Fees from the program generate more than $800,000 in revenue for the county, Moore said.
Because perpetrators have multiple opportunities to avoid obtaining a criminal record, Moore said the program does not serve to discourage perpetrators from committing the crimes again.
“If you’ve got a person who is continually getting publicly intoxicated, and they’ve gone through pre-trial diversion twice before, and they know they got another one, that person’s got less fear of the consequences,” Moore said.
Despite the lack of incentive to avoid minor infractions, overcrowding in Monroe County Jail because of new state criminal codes will force law enforcement to be more particular when deciding who to incarcerate, Moore said.
Carmen Heredia Rodriguez
