Documents-first · 2020–2025 · Jackson + 11 surrounding counties

What the public record actually shows about southern Indiana.

Pick a county, hit a tab, see the numbers. Incarceration, overdose, reentry, and outreach data — rate-normalized so a 14,000-person county can be read against a 140,000-person one. Every cell links back to the primary source.

Today's snapshot · April 26, 2026

Models: Jackson 8% recidivism via Triple Stack (SOAR + MRT + Catholic Charities); Scott 9.5% via IRACS (7th straight perfect inspection March 2026). Crisis: Jennings 28% recidivism + 61.2/100k OD rate (highest in focus set); Brown 26 IDOC inmates held in a 15,200-pop jail (overflow / cross-county hold). Statewide trend: Indiana 2024 OD deaths 1,618 (-25% vs 2023), third consecutive annual decline; suicide deaths 1,168, first decrease since 2019. See /programs for the 5-county deep dive.

Indiana OD deaths (2024)

1,618

3rd year of decline; 24.1/100k — lowest since 2016

Indiana suicide deaths (2024)

1,168

First decrease since 2019 (16.6/100k)

Indiana DOC operational pop.

~25,800

Stable y/y; 967 admissions Oct 2024

Scott Co. IRACS recidivism

9.5%

Down from 26% pre-program (2-year result)

HIRE placements 2024

1,808

More than 2x 2023; 594 partners; $15.84 avg wage

Jennings Co. OD rate (2023)

61.2

Highest of 12 focus counties (per 100k)

Live state numbers

probing api.thatcomputerguy26.org…

Real-time pulls from Gary's home server. Auto-refreshes every 2 minutes.

IDOH OD rate (latest year)

—

/api/idoh/overdose/historical

Active NWS alerts (Jackson Co.)

—

/api/seymour/alerts

USGS quakes M2.5+ (US, 7d)

—

/api/proxy/usgs/quakes

SCOTUS cases on file

—

/api/scotus/cases

Seymour threat composite

—

/api/seymour/threat

Indiana RSS items 24h

—

/api/proxy/news/headlines

AI justice helpers

Local AI on Gary's home server. Use it to ask procedural questions or summarize a long policy doc / court order. No data leaves the home server.

Ask a justice question

Summarize a long doc / order

Sister sites All connected to the same home server

TCG Solutions ↗ IBE — consumer protection ↗ TCG Predictions ↗ IBE Civic Hub ↗ Stock watcher ↗

Pick a county — see its snapshot

Visual snapshot of population, arrest mix, overdose rate, and program coverage. Cells marked “pending” are slots in the schema waiting for the next data pull — how that works.

County

Compare to Indiana statewide on each bar.

What’s rising, what’s falling

Arrests — Jackson 2013–2023 baseline

Per Police Scorecard. Mix has held steady for a decade.

Low-level66%

Drug-related13%

Violent crime3%

Other18%

IDOC releases by county of admission

Pull from IDOC Adult Releases tables. Per-1,000 normalized.

Jackson(pending)

Scott(pending; high)

Jennings(pending)

Bartholomew(pending)

Monroe(pending; large pop)

Jail substance/mental-health prevalence

Per the Scott County Jail Study (2022). Used as anchor for proxy estimates in surrounding rural jails.

Substance-use history85%

Prior mental-health diagnosis58%

National jail-suicide rate baseline~30–60/100k

Overdose deaths per 100,000

Indiana Drug Overdose Dashboard + 2024 Overdose & Suicide Report.

Indiana statewide (2024)~24

Jackson est.~30–45

Scott est. (high)~50+

Jennings est. (high)~45+

Fentanyl-involved share (statewide)

Indiana 2023: 51% of OD deaths positive for fentanyl. Logistic curve to ~85% asymptote.

2023 (data)51%

2026 projection~70%

2028 projection~80%

2030 projection~85%

Post-intake risk window

National jail-overdose pattern: highest risk in first 24 hrs after booking.

>1/3 of opioid deaths in 1st 24hr~33%

>1/2 of other drug deaths in 1st 24hr~50%

Post-release weeks 1–4 OD riskpeak

HIRE — Hoosier Initiative for Re-Entry

Statewide. Job-placement program. State-funded.

Indiana business partners3,000+

Lifetime placements15,000+

Recidivism among completers14%

IRACS at Scott County Jail

Integrated Reentry & Correctional Support pilot. State-funded via Indiana DMHA.

Active since~2022

Peer recovery coaches on-siteyes

Post-release navigator continuityyes

Goodwill New Beginnings + Rural Works

Justice-involved Career Day model + rural workforce reintegration.

Coverage in southern INpartial

Bus-route requirementyes (gatekeeper)

Track recordstrong

Schema fill status

Schema-first dashboard — structure exists, cells fill as data arrives.

Population baseline (Schema 1)filled

Arrest mix (Schema 3)partial — Jackson baseline

Overdose / 911 (Schema 4)state anchors filled

IDOC releases (Schema 2)pending PDF extracts

Programs (Schema 5)known programs listed

Facility×Year (Schema 6)pending

News-headline log (Schema 7)scaffold + patterns

What’s next to fill

Order matters — biggest load-to-effort first.

Indiana Drug Overdose Dashboard county-year export (fills Schema 4 fast).
IDOC Adult Releases 2020–2025 PDFs (fills Schema 2 across every county).
Police Scorecard county pages for the 11 surrounding counties (Schema 3).
Sheriff inmate-roster aggregations 2020–2025 (Schema 2 jail columns).
Provider-by-provider annual program-participation counts (Schema 5).

Indiana statewide context

The southern-Indiana corridor sits inside a 92-county landscape. Here’s how the focus counties fit.

Top-10 most-crowded county jails

Apr 2026 estimates · capacity = rated beds; population = avg-daily count

Vanderburgh (Evansville)94%

St Joseph (South Bend)94%

Marion (Indianapolis)92%

Lake (Gary)92%

Allen (Fort Wayne)92%

Jackson (Seymour) — rural leader91%

Tippecanoe (Lafayette)88%

Bartholomew (Columbus)61%

Scott (Scottsburg) — model54%

Indiana Task Force target75%

Indiana 92-county recidivism heatmap

3-year IDOC return-to-incarceration definition. Statewide average 2024 = 38.16%

Tier 1 (<15%): Jackson, Scott, Monroe3 counties

Tier 2 (15–25%): Bartholomew, Hamilton, Boone, Hendricks …15 counties

Tier 3 (25–35%): Jennings, Lake, Marion, Clark …50 counties

Tier 4 (>35%): Brown 42%, Orange 38%, Washington 35% …24 counties

Jackson + Scott are the only two counties with sub-10% recidivism — both via documented programming (Triple Stack + IRACS). The 24 Tier-4 counties are why the statewide average climbed back to 38% in 2024.

Home detention (Level-6 diversion)

~$25/day vs ~$85/day jail = 66–70% cost savings. 2026 est. statewide ~12,500 participants

Marion (Indy)~2,100/yr

Lake (Gary)~1,400/yr

Allen (Fort Wayne)~950/yr

Vanderburgh (Evansville)~800/yr

Jackson (Seymour)~45/yr (82% diversion)

Scott (Scottsburg)~35/yr (93% diversion)

Rural counties have a smaller absolute home-detention count but a higher diversion rate — meaning a higher share of eligible Level-6 cases actually get diverted. Estimated $1.1M Jackson + $870K Scott in cost savings annually.

Crisis-intervention priorities (April 2026)

Where the next $50M in opioid-settlement / IDOC reform funding should go, ranked.

🚨 Tier 1 — Immediate (regional MOU required)

Brown County: 26 IDOC inmates held in a 15,200-pop county jail (6.7/1k). Zero releases through county of admission. Cross-county hold-over arrangement obscures the real numbers. Action: regional MOU with Monroe / Bartholomew.
Jennings County: highest OD rate in focus set (61.2/100k 2023, ~72/100k 2024 est.). 28% recidivism. SOAR pilot stuck at 22 participants. JRAC remains in data-collection phase. Action: convert JRAC mandate to implementation by 2027; demand a Centerstone or Lifespring SOAR pilot at the jail.

⚠ Tier 2 — Urgent (scale existing)

Clark County: detention center 100%+ full. New 30-acre jail rezoning delayed April 2026. Post-Noel-corruption cleanup ongoing. Action: SOAR/IRACS pilot at the new facility once built; continue Do Something SOIN oversight.
Marion County: 1.2M annual 911 calls; 72,000 OD-related. Largest absolute-number system in the state. Action: home-detention expansion further (+44%) under HB 1006 phase 3.

Tier 3 — Developing (corporate pipeline)

Bartholomew: Cummins-anchored HIRE pipeline working at 18% recidivism. Add Triple-Stack-style programming for sub-15% target. Cummins-supplier HIRE-onboarding could 2x.
Hamilton, Boone, Hendricks: wealthy suburbs with low arrest volumes; treatment capacity exists but reentry housing is thin. Add 50-100 transitional beds to move into Tier 1.

★ Tier 4 — Replicate (proven models)

Jackson Triple Stack → 28 SOAR-funded counties. The model: SOAR + MRT + Catholic Charities = 8% recidivism at $4,150/participant ($7.20 saved per $1).
Scott IRACS → 12 counties planned for 2026. The model: state-funded peer recovery coaches + reentry navigators + 90-day post-release continuity = 9.5% recidivism.

Recommended $50M allocation (next phase)

$15M → SOAR statewide expansion (28 → 56 counties). Match the Jackson + Centerstone model to every rural-IN jail with substance-use prevalence over 80%.
$10M → Regional overflow MOUs (Brown / Jackson / Bartholomew tri-county). Eliminate the cross-county hold-over arrangement that obscures county-of-admission release flow.
$8M → IRACS replication (12 → 36 counties). DMHA-funded peer-navigator template into the next tier of rural jails.
$7M → Thrive Housing expansion (120 → 300 beds). Day-1 reentry stability is the single highest-leverage intervention; current capacity is 40% short of demand.
$5M → Free Ride / opioid-settlement transit (8 counties currently → 25). Closes the Goodwill New Beginnings “reliable transportation” gate.
$5M → Crisis-county intensive (Jennings + Brown + Orange + Washington + Decatur). Build the bottom-five tier-4 counties to baseline tier-3 over 18 months.

What does any of this mean for me?

If you live, work, or have family in this corridor: this dashboard is the closest you can get to a single “state-of-the-county” view without filing eight FOIA requests yourself. The numbers point to where the system is concentrated (Scott County overdose density, post-intake suicide windows in rural jails) and where help has actually scaled (HIRE jobs, IRACS reentry navigators, Goodwill New Beginnings).

The point is not to blame any one county or sheriff. The point is to make the public record legible enough that residents, families, employers, and local-government staff can have informed conversations about what’s working and what isn’t — without depending on whatever made the news that week.