The Journal & Courier has more on the death of Aiyana Gauvin and they also have an opinion piece entitled Did system fail Aiyana? It surely didn’t save her.

The news story describes a court proceeding in which the juvenile court judge said that prior records involving Aiyana had to remain sealed. Those records involve the initial removal of the girl from her mother in a child in need of services proceedings. There is at least the allegation that the mother had a prescription drug dependency before Aiyana was moved to her father and step-mother. The juvenile court judge said that her personal preference would be for the records to be unsealed, but that the law didn’t allow her to act on her personal preference in this regard. The Journal & Courier is apparently going to try for the records under a different legal angle.

The opinion piece captures the simmering rage of the community over this incident. For my own part, I cannot fathom the depravity that leads to the deliberate torture of a 4 year old. Apparently pictures were taken of Aiyana tied to bathroom fixtures and baby gates. I believe there are also allegations that other children in the family were involved with Aiyana’s mistreatment.

I seem to have a fixation on the more emotional stories this week – Aiyana Gauvin and Terri Schiavo. Chalk it up to a slowish legislative lead up to the Easter Weekend I suppose.

The Muncie Star has an opinion entitled Editorial: Benefits for ex-legislators too costly for taxpayers referring to the legislation, passed in 2002, that offers taxpayer subsidized healthcare for ex-legislators. (See previous entry.) According to the Star Press:

While that doesn’t make a ripple in the $11.6 billion state budget, the benefit is offensive in principle, particularly at a time when legislators are cutting state programs because “there’s not enough money.” In addition, lifetime benefits have a way of adding up to real money over the years as more and more beneficiaries waddle up to the trough. This is all in addition to a pension program that legislators created in which the state matches $4 for every $1 they contribute.

The Muncie Star Press takes the House Republicans for using the benefit as a campaign issue against Democrats but then failing to take action once they gained control.

Engrossed Version, House Bill 1039 Interfering with drug or alcohol screening tests. Makes it a Class B misdemeanor for an incarcerated person or a person under court supervision to interfere with, or to possess a device or substance intended to be used to interfere with, a drug or alcohol screening test. Passed by the Seante 46 -0.

The Indianapolis Star has an opinion piece based on the death of a 4 year old Lafayette girl, apparently the result of abuse involving her hands being bound and duct tape over her mouth, that was previously reported in the Lafayette Journal & Courier and upon which I posted a blog entry. I had thought that I was straying fairly far afield from my normal Indiana political beat. But, the Star Opinion brings it a bit closer to home. According to the Indy Star:

The child protection system in Indiana is broken. Badly. And, for 4-year-old Aiyana and thousands of other children suffering from abuse or languishing in foster care, tragically.

Aiyana’s case is especially maddening because her grandfather says family members called Child Protection Services three times in recent months to warn that the child was in danger. The director of the Tippecanoe County Office of Family and Children says there was insufficient evidence to investigate the complaints, despite the fact that Aiyana’s father, Christian Gauvin, was convicted less than two years ago of battery on a child. Both he and the child’s stepmother have been in trouble with the law many times.

One reason why children like Aiyana are not better protected is the sheer volume of reports handled by the state. In fiscal year 2003, state workers investigated 61,492 reports. In a system in which caseworkers are hopelessly overworked and undertrained, mistakes — life-threatening mistakes — become all but inevitable.

The Lafayette Journal & Courier has a story on Child Protective Services and its deficiencies, as well as efforts to address the problem. The J&C also has a story with more details on Aiyana’s death.

Joint Resolution 0004 Constitutional Right to Hunt & Fish. Passed 41-6. I sure hope that this dog of a Constitutional Amendment makes somebody feel better. Because having this thing cluttering up the Constitution isn’t actually going to protect anybody’s rights. And I quote:

The people have a right to hunt, fish, and harvest game, which are a valued part of our heritage and shall be forever preserved for the public good, subject to laws prescribed by the General Assembly and rules prescribed by virtue of the authority of the General Assembly.

This amendment says that the General Assembly can go ahead and do what it wants with regard to regulating hunting and fishing. The state is not restrained in the least by this amendment. And it won’t bind the federal government from exercising its authority. I mean, at least the homosexual marriage amendment actually does something. Agree or disagree with the policy, if passed, it will limit the authority of the state government.

Joint Resolution 0007 The AntiGay Marriage Amendment passed 76 to 23. If the legislature passes it again in 2007, and the people of Indiana ratify it, my marriage will finally be safe! A big thank you to the General Assembly for doing this important work and preventing all them homersexshuls from destroying my marriage.

Senate Bill 0132

Premises liability. Provides that if a person enters the premises of a nonprofit religious organization that is used for worship services with the permission of the nonprofit religious organization, the nonprofit religious organization has a duty to: (1) warn the person of a hidden danger on the premises if a representative of the nonprofit religious organization has actual knowledge of the hidden danger; and (2) refrain from intentionally harming the person. Provides that if a person enters the premises of a nonprofit religious organization without the permission of the nonprofit religious organization, the nonprofit religious organization has only a duty to refrain from intentionally harming the person.

I’m afraid I’m not up to speed enough on my premises liability law to notice immediately how this differs from premises liability for any other similarly situated organization that doesn’t happen to be used for religious purposes. Also not immediately obvious to me are the policy reasons for treating nonprofit places of worship differently from other nonprofit places open to the public with respect to premises liability. In any event, the House Judiciary Committee approved this and sent it on to the full House.

A couple of House Bills passed the Senate without amendment and should, therefore, be on their way to the Governor:

House Bill 1540 Indiana Abraham Lincoln bicentennial commission. Establishes the Indiana Abraham Lincoln bicentennial commission. Passed 49-0. (Who is going to vote against Abe?)

HB 1032 Use of biodiesel fuel in state vehicles. Requires the use of blended biodiesel fuel in state vehicles when feasible. Passed 48-0. (Biodiesel fuel is defined as “a blend of biodiesel with petroleum diesel so that the percentage of biodiesel in the blend is at least two percent (2%) (B2 or greater). The term does not include biodiesel (B100).”

Most of the House’s action was on Second Reading matters yesterday. Some of the bills that passed 3rd reading and head to conference committee are:

Senate Bill 0444 – Meth & Pharmacy security. Passed 91 – 6. Among several other things, the bill:

Requires a package of a drug containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine to be: (1) protected by an anti-theft device; and (2) stored in an area that is under constant video monitoring. Allows a pharmacist to refuse to honor a prescription if honoring the prescription would endanger the safety of a person employed by the pharmacy. Requires a pharmacist to notify a physician who issued a prescription if the pharmacist refuses to honor the prescription because honoring the prescription would: (1) be against the best interest of the patient; or (2) be contrary to the health and safety of the patient.

SB 483 Voter Identification. Passed 52 – 45. Requires state or federal ID to be used before a person can vote at the polls (but not absentee). Sets up a provisional ballot procedure for people who don’t have their ID on them. (My guess is about 0% of people will jump through the provisional voting hoops set up in this bill.) The House Republicans previously rejected several propoosals that would have required notification to voters of their rights and obligations with respect to producing identification and provisional ballots.

Kevin Corcoran for the Indianapolis Star has an article entitled Budget freeze spurs talk of private prison. The article states that Indiana’s new prisons chief, J. David Donahue is looking at building Indiana’s first private prison as a way of coping with the budget’s freeze on prison spending:

Indiana’s new prisons chief says he’s looking at building the state’s first private prison to help ride out a two-year budget freeze amid projections of a surge in inmates.

Department of Correction Commissioner J. David Donahue has dropped the previous Democratic administration’s plans for a new state-run 1,800-bed prison for men and a juvenile prison dormitory in Plainfield.

Along with related moves such as outsourcing nursing care and cooking, a private prison for Indiana’s growing adult prison population appears likely.

“I’ll be looking at an opportunity for a private facility to be sited, financed, built and operated by private companies,” said Donahue, a former vice president and chief operating officer for U.S. Corrections Corp., a private prison company. Any new prisons, he said, should not be paid for by taxpayers.

I really do not like the idea of having any corporation doing business in Indiana that has a profit motive related to the incarceration of Indiana citizens. It just creates perverse incentives. Their bottom line gets better as more Hoosiers are locked up. And if Mr. Donahue used to work for the private prison industry, it raises some serious red flags. Not that he has a lot to work with. The House of Representatives’ decision to flat-line prison spending without taking appropriate measures to reduce the need for prison spending is short-sighted and irresponsible.

According to Mr. Corcoran’s article:

The nation’s largest owner and operator of private prisons, Corrections Corp. of America, runs 64 facilities with about 70,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia, according to the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Last year, the company reported profits of $61 million.

Private prison companies such as Corrections Corp. and Prison Health Services Inc. have contributed a total of more than $50,000 to Democrats and Republicans in Indiana since 2000, with Daniels receiving about one-third of this money.