State parole board faces pressure from growing case load\nINDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Parole Board has seen its case load more than double during the past decade, while it has gained no new staff to help review whether inmates should be kept in prison.\nThe board does not track how many people have had their parole revoked, but prosecutors say at least two women -- a retired librarian and a jail guard -- were killed in the past two years by men who had been released early from behind bars.\nThe board held about 2,100 parole violation hearings last year, up from fewer than 900 in 1994. During that time, the state increased the number of parole officers to 72 from 62 but added no staff for the board.\n"We're spread thin. That's not an excuse; that's an explanation," Earl Coleman, the parole board's assistant, told The Indianapolis Star for a story Monday.\nGiven the kinds of prisoners the board oversees, Coleman said, mistakes are inevitable.\n"They're walking time bombs," he said, "because you know you've got some fraction that's going to do something, but you don't know which ones."\nThe board in February 2003 granted parole to Herbert E. Clark Jr., who was serving a burglary sentence after a previous conviction for a sex offense. He went back to jail briefly late last year for a parole violation, but prosecutors say that in May he broke into the home of retired Poseyville librarian Carol Renee Lamar and beat her to death with an ax.\nClark, 45, of Evansville, is awaiting trial on charges of murder, sexual battery, attempted armed robbery and burglary for Lamar's death in the town some 20 miles northwest of Evansville. His defense attorney has said he might argue that Clark suffered from mental illness.\nThe parole board, a five-member panel appointed by the governor, does not keep statistics on how often those it releases from prison get in trouble again with the law.\nValerie Parker, the board's vice chairwoman, said the board operated on a tight budget and did not have the staff to collect more detailed information. She said the board devoted most of its resources to monitoring offenders on parole.\nOf the 5,206 adult inmates paroled in 2000, the most recent year for which state figures are available, about 2,500 have been sent back to prison for new crimes or parole violations.
Lafayette hospitals cut 77 jobs to focus on core programs\nLAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The company that operates Lafayette's two hospitals plans to cut 77 of its 2,600 jobs by early January, officials said.\nTerry Wilson, president of Greater Lafayette Health Services, said most affected employees at St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Home Hospital will be offered other jobs within the company. Officials say the cuts are needed to save money and focus on core programs.\nTwenty jobs will be lost in the laboratory services department, the Journal and Courier reported in a story Saturday. Forty-four jobs will be cut when the skilled nursing unit at St. Elizabeth is closed, saving $1 million a year.\nThe other 13 layoffs, scattered throughout the company, will affect management and staff.\nAnnouncement of the cutbacks comes less than four months after the Arnett Clinic, which includes about 150 doctors, dropped plans to build a new 140-bed hospital on the city's south side.\nWilson said hospitals across the nation were being pinched financially because of insufficient reimbursement for services delivered to Medicare and Medicaid patients.\nThe two hospitals also are losing revenue from outpatient services and surgeries because of competition from outpatient medical centers, he said.\nThe staff cuts will not change a major capital plan previously announced, the company said. During the next three years, Greater Lafayette Health Services has said it would spend $130 million on maternal and child health services, emergency department services, information technology and other facility upgrades.
