HANCOCK COUNTY — An inmate in the Hancock County Jail who was part of Behavioral Health Court was caught violating a protective no contact order while still registered as an inmate in the Hancock County Jail earlier this spring.
The inmate has now been hit with 44 new counts of invasion of privacy charges, with each charge carrying a sentence of up to one year in jail. Law enforcement officials in Hancock County say unfortunately it’s not unusual for inmates in the county jail to continue committing crimes once they’re behind bars.
It’s why officials with the Hancock County Jail under the supervision of Jail Commander Bridget Foy have created a Jail Investigative Team (JIT) to look into crimes committed by inmates housed in the Hancock County Jail. The effort also comes at the suggestion of the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office, where officials have long wanted to hold accountable inmates who continue to break the law after they’ve been arrested.
Foy says she’s got seven jail officers on the JIT team who will be investigating crimes committed in jail such as theft, simple assault (battery);, invasion of privacy via jail phone calls, visits and chirps (messaging app), destruction of county property, makeshift jail weapons, sexual assault, and simple drug investigations.
“Inmates who are violating their no contact orders by making phone calls, chirping messages, and doing video visits are committing crimes by reaching out to their victims,” Foy said. “The chiefs in Hancock County care about those violations, but their resources to investigate those cases may be restricted by staffing issues.”
Holding inmates accountable when they commit crimes while in the county jail has been a difficult thing for law enforcement outside of the jail to investigate. Foy and others felt it just made good sense for her staff to try to catch those who are violating court orders and continuing to commit crimes in their facility rather than call in outside law enforcement officials who never seem to have the time to investigate crimes committed at the jail.
“From there, the idea grew from investigating the invasion of privacy charges to working up to theft charges, simple assaults – battery, sexual assault, destruction of county property, contraband, makeshift jail weapons, and simple drug charges,” Foy said.
Foy went to Sheriff Brad Burkhart and sought his approval to create the JIT as a way to charge more violations that were taking place in the jail and to create a way for some of her staff to use their investigative skills.
“Since implementation of the team in May, we have already had six inmates investigated for crimes with five of them being charged,” Foy said.
While Foy and others in the county think the creation of the JIT is a good thing for the community, she feels it’s going to have a huge impact of behavior of inmates who come in with bad attitudes looking to continue their poor behavior.
“I think, overall, we are going to see a big change in behavior when these charges start coming out,” Foy said. “Maybe they will think twice after they see another inmate in the block get handed another sentence for more time in jail.”
While Foy noted there will always be some inmates who like testing the waters to see if jail staff is watching, and there will always be those few who just don’t care, she feels the JIT will have a positive overall impact.
“We will just have to wait and see,” Foy said.
Hancock County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Aimee Herring said officials with the prosecutor’s office are grateful to Burkhart and Foy for their continued commitment to public safety.
“The Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office has made it well known that we have been understaffed for years and have not been able to prosecute all of the crimes that we know are happening in our jurisdiction, largely due to our limited resources,” Herring said.
Herring noted that Foy partnering with their office to spearhead a JIT specifically committed to investigating ongoing criminal activity that is taking place at in the county jail is a huge step towards holding law violators accountable.
“The Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office noticed a large increase in the number of victims reporting violations of no contact orders that have been court issued at defendant’s initial hearing dates, generally on crimes of violence,” Herring said. “After a person has endured the trauma of being victimized by a perpetrator, the last thing they should have to worry about is continued contact from the person that harmed them.”
Herring went on to say law enforcement in Hancock County want to send the message that they take violations committed in jail seriously and will do everything they can to protect the public and keep victims safe.
“We intend to seek consecutive sentences when repeated violations occur, and such sanctions are supported by the law,” Herring said. “We are elated to have this new partnership with the Jail Investigations Team.”
