By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – Drug-related arrests increased by 227.38 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to Sheriff Robert Land.
On Monday night, Jan. 23, Land provided the Wabash County Jail’s year-end report to the Wabash County Council.
Land also reported the top 10 incarcerated offenses for the year, noting “these could be multiple charges on an individual.”
“In 2015, we had a total of 241 (drug) charges and in 2016, last year we had 548 drug charges,” Land told the council. “So that’s over 100 percent increase just in drug charges. I did not do a percentage on the other charges. I know that OWI (operating while intoxicated) is up from last year and domestic battery is up from last year, but that’s just off the top of my head.”
Of the top 10 incarceration offenses, the sheriff also reported 207 operating while intoxicated charges, 84 theft charges, 64 domestic battery charges, 63 probation violations, 62 disorderly conduct charges, 59 public intoxication charges, 54 resisting law enforcement charges, 52 battery charges and 33 failure to appear citations.
Land said “the drastic change” is misdemeanor charge cases as they increased from 580 in 2015 to 747 cases in 2016.
Meanwhile, criminal charge statistics show that in 2016, Wabash County Courts had 350 felony charge cases compared to 323 in 2015.
The jail had 1,247 total “new” admissions in 2016 compared to 1,183 in 2015, Land said.
Last year’s average daily population (ADP) was 83.21 inmates with a reported ADP of 130.27 inmates for all facilities, Wabash County, Miami County and Elkhart County, according to Land.
In 2015, the ADP was 83.98 with no average provided for all facilities.
“There was a total of 365 days during 2016 in which the jail facility was over its rate capacity of 72,” Land said.
Of inmates booked in 2016, 901 were male and 346 were female compared to the 2015 report of 852 males and 331 females.
Land also reported that jail incident reports increased 423 in 2016 from 147 in 2015.
The increase was due to a “more active program in making the inmates accountable for their actions in the facility as well as a change in the reporting of incidents,” according to the report.