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Rewrite Of Indiana Criminal Code Goes Into Effect Tomorrow

Derek Key
/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/derekskey/

The top-to-bottom rewrite of Indiana‘s criminal code takes effect tomorrow.

The revised criminal code creates seven classes of felony instead of five, allowing finer distinctions between sentencing ranges.

And legislators reviewed the appropriate category for each crime, moving several nonviolent crimes lower on the sentencing scale.

Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council executive director David Powell says prosecutors are "as ready as we can get" for the transition.

"It's certainly been looked at hard and had input from all the parties," says Powell. "It involved a lot of compromises, but it is going to roll out July 1 like it or not and we'll do the best we can to implement it."

He says they‘ve undergone hours of training over the last couple of months, including a review of the final tweaks legislators made in a one-day cleanup session two weeks ago.

Police have been undergoing training too, to make sure they‘re familiar with changes in the paperwork they fill out when they arrest someone.

The new code applies to crimes committed after July 1st.

Crimes committed before then will still be prosecuted under the laws in effect at the time.