Prison officials fish for tips with cold case playing cards

Indiana prisoners will have the faces of cold case homicide victims and missing persons on the only decks of playing cards available for purchase in state prisons.

Daniels makes her mark on state's criminal sentencing laws

INDIANAPOLIS | Former Gov. Mitch Daniels may have been the loudest voice calling for the type of criminal sentencing reform legislation that was approved by a state House committee last week, but it was his sister, Deborah Daniels, a former U.S. attorney and U.S. assistant attorney general, …

EDITORIAL: Probe mental health care in prisons

Incoming Gov. Mike Pence should make it one of his first tasks to address concerns about how mentally ill inmates are treated in the Department of Correction system.

Woman's visit with husband in Westville prison ends in arrest

WESTVILLE | A 46-year-old Rochester, Ind., woman was arrested and charged with attempted trafficking while visiting her husband at the Westville Correctional Facility on Thanksgiving, officials said.

EDITORIAL: Save prison for serious offenses

A recent Indiana Department of Correction report shows Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties are to be commended for their community corrections programs. We concur.

Columbia City woman arrested for alleged trafficking at prison

WESTVILLE | A Columbia City woman was arrested Saturday after being caught allegedly trying to traffic contraband to an inmate at Westville Correctional Facility, officials said.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Concerted effort could ease jail crowding

The Porter County Jail, as now configured and staffed, is overcrowded. The number of inmates should not be a surprise when case filings and reasons for incarceration are analyzed.

Gary woman accused of trafficking at Westville prison

WESTVILLE | A Gary woman was arrested and charged with trafficking Monday while visiting an inmate at the Westville Correctional Facility, officials there said Wednesday.

LaPorte police investigating fatal shooting

LAPORTE | LaPorte police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man Sunday night across from the police station, possibly by a gunman wearing a Halloween mask.

DOUG ROSS: Prisons are for correction, not just punishment

If you think sentencing reform is all about making the punishment fit the crime, you're not quite right. It's about making sure the criminal changes bad behavior, too.

Police name suspect in three bank robberies

Authorities said a local man targeted familiar territory when he allegedly robbed three grocery store banks over the past week.

MARK KIESLING: Justice falls through the cracks in slayings

You'd like to think that one of the purposes of prison is to rehabilitate people for eventual release into society. But it doesn't always work that way.

A matter of life or death

On April 6, Wayne Kubsch, a 43-year-old Mishawaka man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife and stepson and his wife's ex-husband in 1998, is set to join a list of 20 other convicted murderers executed by the state of Indiana.

Daniels close to presidential decision

MUNSTER | Gov. Mitch Daniels said he may be close to a decision on whether to run for president. "I think I have got to make up my mind fairly soon," Daniels told The Times Editorial Board Thursday.

EDITORIAL: Weigh death penalty's deterrent value

Officials in Indiana and Illinois are rethinking capital punishment, but the way they're framing the discussion could be missing the chief argument for or against it.

MARK KIESLING: Cold case deck a perfect stocking stuffer

So it's the fifth of December, only 20 days left until Santa makes his big drop-off, and you are still looking for a stocking stuffer.

OFFBEAT: Even Nancy Reagan liked to save money while looking her best

Phil Potempa's daily entertainment news column.

IDOE looks to define rules to take over of failing schools

School superintendents whose failing schools could be taken over by private companies complained at a public hearing last Friday they have not been given the same tools and flexibility the companies might be given to turn the schools around.