Bail change vote coming to November ballots.

The Bears play both sides of Chicagoland, and an I.C.E.

detainee dies in an Indiana facility.

From the television studios at WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending February 20th, 2026.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.

Hoosiers will vote this year on whether to allow judges to deny potentially dangerous offenders bail under a constitutional amendment.

Ben Thorp reports that change was approved by lawmakers this week.

Under current Indiana law, people can only be denied bail if they are charged with murder or treason.

And there's strong evidence against them.

The amendment would allow judges to deny people bail if they pose a substantial risk to the public.

Samantha Bresnahan is with the ACLU of Indiana, which opposes the measure.

She says detention can have lasting consequences for people's lives.

It can cost someone their job, their housing and even custody of their children.

And even when charges are dismissed or a person is found not guilty, these harms cannot be undone.

Voters will see the bail change question on their ballots in the November general election.

Will Hoosiers vote to expand No bail.

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel.

Political strategist Elise Schrock.

Republican Chris Mitchem.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis.

And Niki Kelley, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So, Elise should Indiana deny bail to more people in the criminal justice system?

Well, you know, as a spot before said, there are ways that this already happens.

And I do share some concerns that the ACLU mentioned.

We have due process.

And this gives wide discretion to judges.

in a system that allows for due process where you are innocent until proven guilty.

So we are widening, the, the ability for this to be used but also abused.

And it could have implications for, people who, are living in poverty, trapping them in systems of poverty.

It could have implications for people who experience racial bias.

So there are definitely some legitimate concerns, but it's past.

It's going to the ballot.

And I think there needs to be some considerable effort to educate voters on what they are voting on.

I think these ballot, when when issues like this show up on the ballot, they tend to take people by surprise and they get to the ballot and they're like, wait, what am I voting on?

And so if it's going to the people, the people deserve, some type of educational campaign to know what they are voting on.

I'll be interested to see how that pans out.

That's a good point, Chris.

You know, we did hear a lot of legislators who supported this move talk a lot about, you know, they're targeting the most dangerous offenders.

And we've heard this argument for a long time in Marion County that, people who are out on bail commit serious offenses.

Is this the best way to address that?

Yeah, I really think this is one of the more kind of commonsense things that the legislature is going to do all year, and I think you've seen that as it's moved through the process, it's gone through on a largely bipartisan basis.

You have the a court, a couple occasional outliers.

But, I think there are plenty of guardrails in here to try to prevent any kind of judge abuse of this, because it's kind of two pronged, right.

First, before you go into a bail hearing, you have to make sure there's enough evidence to even prove that a crime was done right, which I think makes a lot of sense.

But then the level of evidence required goes even higher to prove that that individual is dangerous.

And I think that's where kind of the rubber hits the road of if you have somebody with no criminal history that maybe did a crime that, you know, would be appeared as heinous as to most people, that's not an automatic.

You get no bail.

Still, the prosecutor has to go forth and prove.

I think it's by clear and convincing evidence that this person is dangerous if they are let back out into the community, which I think is a very high standard to try to prove.

And I think that's where, this language does really well of making sure there is that high enough discretion to where it is hard to abuse.

And I mean, Representative Jeter and Senator Koch did a good job of kind of moving this through the process of showing it is a bipartisan issue.

I think they said 22 states, red and blue have passed it as it's going.

Just because I think Marion County is maybe the the topic that a lot of people use, because I think there is plenty of improvements that can be happened to our, our prosecutorial system.

But, it really is a statewide issue that you're hearing that people across the state are saying, yeah, I hope this helps make my community safer as well.

Well, Niki, with this amendment, you know, this had to go through the legislature once before as well in order for it to end up on the ballot.

Is this solid with the proper guardrails in place that we can, you know, trust that the system will not have people fall through the gaps?

Well, look, I mean, this is a system in humans.

I can't say that any policy is 100%, you know, no one's going to fall through the gaps.

But I think they took and considered some, you know, discussion around this over, what, four years.

So, you know, this has been heavily vetted.

And I do think if you went to most people and said, do you think a judge should be able to deny, deny bail for a very violent accused rapist?

They'd say, sure.

But right now in Indiana, they can't.

And Laura Elise makes a good point about educating people on the fact of this will be on the ballot and you should be aware ahead of election.

Yeah.

And it's important to know legislative proposals tend to go through not just in Indiana but just nationally because a lot of times voters don't necessarily know much about them.

They don't read the state constitution.

They don't know that this addresses article one, section 17.

They may not know what the current law is and how this would change the law, but they also tend to trust legislators and say, well, if this is coming from the legislature and this is what my lawmakers want to see, I think it must be good.

I think the balance here that you see is both judge autonomy, giving them some authority and power, but also the subjectivity.

How much is too much and how much justice depends on which judge you get, which day in any current circumstance.

I do think the language does a lot to provide those guardrails, but of course there could be some human intervention, human error, and we'll have to see, of course, how it plays out with voters in November.

And then if it is enacted, what it does.

There, Elise we did hear quite a bit of people that spoke against it as well.

The worried about things like jail overcrowding, is that a serious concern?

Sure.

And it's also, I mean, from, a human dignity side of things that's also that means it's also going to be costly.

So we have to think about the fiscal impact of that as well.

Do you think, Chris, the language that will be presented to voters on the ballot is solid for this moving forward?

Yeah, I thought that was actually one of the more interesting parts because to Elise's point, I do think there's going to be some education required, especially for those on the opposite side of wanting to defeat this proposal, because the way that it is written, it is pretty legalese, I would say, but I also think it's important that it's written that way just to make sure they know what they're actually voting on.

And then, I mean, to the jail overcrowding standpoint, I have a hard time thinking that would exacerbate that issue just because, again, that standard is so high for people who would probably be held on bail anyways, which I think is important to to realize, right now the system says that, a lot of times what judges do now is that they'll just set bail exponentially high.

And there's a lot of good points of saying that actually kind of makes almost like a class system where if you are wealthy and you happen to find yourself in one of these situations, you're a lot more likely to meet that really high bail standard instead of somebody who maybe lower income and that kind of disparity there.

Well, time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question should the state refused bail for more people in Indiana?

Yes or no?

The last question posed to viewers what moves should the state take to better protect youth?

Answer 20% saying expand Amber alerts 16% say create a new alert system and 64% say tighten social media usage.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to WFYI.org/IWIR and look for the poll.

The odds that the Chicago Bears could come to Indiana just got better.

Ben Thorp reports the Bears and state legislators say they are committed to complete the final steps of a legislative deal.

Lawmakers unanimously passed a bill out of committee to create a stadium finance authority in charge of acquiring land and paying for the construction of facilities.

Speaker of the House Todd Huston says the Bears are willing to invest $2 billion into northwest Indiana.

And we're forging a relationship that will be the foundation with public private partnership, leading to construction of a world class stadium, setting a new standard for event day experiences.

Indiana would pay around $1 billion to support infrastructure around the new stadium, paid for in bonds and taxes on food and hotels in the region.

So, Chris, is this the most excited we've seen lawmakers on the governor about an issue this session?

It definitely is.

And even on Thursday, it was such a unique experience in the statehouse because with only a week left in session, that's where tensions really start to run high.

You're starting to see a lot of the arm twisting from the legislative leaders and kind of horse trading on a lot of different bills.

But it's like for two hours there was like an oasis on the fourth floor of like you had the Senate and the House coming together to present the bill, and you had Democrat lawmakers talking in support of it.

And understandably so, because it is a big deal, right?

I mean, it's it's crazy to think how even a month ago, you know, there was whispers and I put it out, maybe like a 5% chance it happens.

Now, I would say it's probably more 5050 Indiana.

I would even say it's probably in the lead right now.

sorry.

and probably in the lead right now.

I think a lot of that has to go to the credit to really just our state fiscal outlook right now.

Senator Mishler.

Speaker Huston, kind of setting the stage for this.

I think you see the dichotomy between Indiana's government of fiscal conservatism.

And then you have, you know, the Illinois government over there, which probably has a lot bigger issues and trying to fund a stadium.

I know the Chicago Bears have been trying to been in a conversation with the Illinois legislature for almost seven years now, and it's just so happens that as soon as Indiana gets, like a sniff, we have the kind of the outlook to be able to act quickly, get a deal done on the table.

And I would say put us in the lead, towards getting this stadium done.

And we did hear that response pretty quickly from Illinois and the governor and lawmakers.

They're saying, wait a second, we have a deal, too, and there's plenty of time to get a deal done.

As my understanding.

Yeah, I'm sure that competition, of course, makes, it gives their, a bit more of a fire to get a deal done.

And, and to Chris's point, I like that it proves that things can happen at the Indiana General Assembly when there is motivation to move things forward with some agreement, and some positivity and bipartisan, muscle building.

So just noting it can be done.

and I think the thing that I'm, I would be most excited about is to see some economic, development.

And I think the true measure of success, if this does go through, will be how it impacts the everyday, quality of life for people in the region.

That's what the true success would be for that.

As if this can help everyday people in the region with their quality of life through whatever benefits could come from this.

I mean, that's a great point, Niki.

The redevelopment alone in Northwest Indiana, I mean, if anyone's driven through that area, we have family there.

We drive through East Chicago and, Gary a lot and it is in need.

And that would be huge.

Oh, it would be huge.

I do hope, and I get everyone's totally excited and we're all on board.

And I think it's going to easily pass.

And you know, we're putting our best foot forward.

I do hope at least in the next couple of days, we get a fiscal impact statement on the bill.

Like, we really don't know a lot about a lot of the inner workings of this and how much money we're talking about and where all it's going to come from and how many Hoosiers are going to pay it, versus how many Illinois residents are going to pay it.

And so I still think, you know, we've got some due diligence to do.

And I also think people need to understand that the Bears can take as much time as they want.

Like they said, this is contingent on site specific due diligence, right?

So they still have to buy the land and they have to test it and make sure it's all environmentally good.

And we're talking probably a couple more months.

So this is not going to happen overnight.

You have a ton of manufacturing plants up there.

So a super manufacturer heavy part of the state that you probably have to tread a little carefully when it comes to land usage.

And I think the environmental remediation piece alone.

Oh, absolutely.

And they do have their lease through 2033.

So not that they want to string us along.

I will say, the thing that was most interesting to me this week was when Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he was surprised to hear about this.

because I was surprised to hear he was surprised.

This has been a big conversation in Indiana.

And I think in the same press conference, he also said he was disappointed, but then also said that they had conversations with the Bears leadership and he felt confident they were keeping them in Indiana or Illinois.

Excuse me.

I think we've done a really good job at trying to attack this.

And again, for the economic revitalization in northwest Indiana, I think a region that has really struggled and worked so hard.

If this happens, if anything near like this happens, I think it would be fantastic for that area.

And Hammond, yes, the exciting an I.C.E.

detainee has died while in custody at the Miami Correctional Facility north of Kokomo.

Sam Horton has more immigration.

And Customs Enforcement records show Lorth Sim, a Cambodian national, is being held at Miami Correctional Facility.

The 59 year old was.

Found unresponsive in a cell and pronounced dead shortly after 7 a.m.

Monday morning, according to congressional notification shared by.

Immigration researcher Austin Kocher.

The cause of death is under investigation.

Sim came to.

The U.S.

as a refugee and became a. Lawful permanent resident.

In the 80s.

In 2006, an immigration judge ordered his removal to Cambodia following several convictions.

His death marks the seventh of this year and the first of an I.C.E.

detainee at Miami Correctional Facility.

The Indiana.

Prison started holding detainees last October.

As part of an.

Agreement.

Between the US Department.

Of Homeland Security.

And the.

State of Indiana.

So, Niki, was this just an inevitability at Miami Correctional?

I don't I don't think that's the right word.

I mean, look, this is a prison space, and obviously people die sometimes in prisons, whether it's a detention space or for serving your crime, you know, serving your time for a crime.

And we know nothing yet about this.

This could have been a completely natural, you know, situation.

It could have been, you know, involvement with another inmate.

I mean, we just don't know enough.

I don't think at this point to come to any real conclusions.

I do hope that the Indiana Department of Correction this week, they said, you know, we're going to refer you to I.C.E.. But I think it is their facility and it is their state employees.

And I do think they owe it to Hoosiers to also, you know, be on top of it and let everyone know what is happening in that facility.

Laura, do you think we'll hear an investigation that we will have some answers?

I certainly hope we do, because whether or not it's inevitable, things like this could be avoidable.

To Niki's point, we know almost nothing.

and unfortunately, that doesn't start stop the court of public opinion.

But we do need an investigation.

We do need accountable, quite frankly, for the clarity.

So we understand what the circumstances were, what might be avoided in the future, what maybe was unavoidable.

but I think when we talk about things like this, it's so important to have that kind of thorough investigation so the public understands what's going on and also to have a level of accountability, clarity and transparency.

While we know nothing you know about this man's death, we do know a little bit more about who this man was in the United States.

Does that provide us with some information about this particular case and the type of people that are being detained?

Yeah, I really don't think the the background of this individual should really matter too much when you talk about, hey, he was, you know, judicially, you know, referred to be, you know, deported back to his home country.

So, you know, he was there properly I would say, it's not like it was just one of those, you know, kind of crazy stories you've been hearing about I.C.E.

across the country or anything like that.

But I think it's really interesting to see kind of to, to Niki's point, the distribution of responsibilities between the Department of Corrections and I.C.E.

I think right now, the D.O.C.

it again, going back to getting more information of, you know, did something happen while he was getting transferred by the I.C.E.

agents or was this something that happened inside the facility with the Department of Corrections employees?

Like, I think once we get more clarity around that, then we'll be able to better tell again where the issue happened and really kind of who's more responsible.

Because whenever you do have an I.C.E.

facility like that, you have federal players at hand, you have state players at hand.

And it's kind of where did the I guess the, the mistake happen if there even is one?

It could be totally natural as well.

Yeah.

Elise I mean, something happened and we don't know for sure.

And, this death is one of many that has happened in I.C.E.

detention across the nation.

And that is something I that I lament that many people lament.

And I think we also need to ask why he was there.

I would push back a little bit about why he is there.

This man was a refugee.

Refugees are some of the most heavily vetted people who are, I would say, under every other presidential administration invited to come to the United States through a heavily vetted program.

They go through many, many procedures to get here.

They are in many various, parts of the process to get green cards.

So I think we need to know more about where he was, in his status, in the system before he was put in to the Miami Correctional Facility.

I also take issue with, some of the response we have from our leaders.

I have personally gone with other people of faith, many faith traditions to protest at the Miami Correctional Facility and hold vigil and lament over people held in the Miami Correctional Facility, immigrants, refugees, undocumented people.

And to hear that our state, to hear that our senator is choosing to spend time to investigate people like me and rabbis and imams and clergy who would go to lament these types of conditions and not investigate this where the where the energy should be spent.

I think that is really disappointing.

And, Niki, you've been inside this facility.

You've done an investigative report on this, and this facility has been known to be understaffed, to have possibly some dangerous conditions.

Yeah, Miami.

There's kind of like two mirrored sections.

And so the the section that the prisoners, the state prisoners are in has had numerous deaths, numerous issues with health care, that kind of thing.

The section that the refugees are in is, smaller.

There's only about 550 of them versus like 1700 of that.

So, you know, they don't have as much population I think they are raising they have been able to hire some staff with an additional amount of money because I.C.E.

giving them so much money per day, $294 a day per per immigrant.

And so they have been able to add some staff, but they're still not fully staffed.

And so those are the kinds of things that that we needed to know and see if anything had anything to do with, with his death, you know, should he have been checked on before?

You know, things like that?

We just don't know.

But Laura, as the state does move to expand cooperation with I.C.E.

and and federal agents who are looking to detain more people, is this a risk?

We've also have another location that we've identified in the state that may be holding detainees any any time soon?

Yeah, I mean, it is a risk.

And we talk about Senate Bill 76.

Right.

so expanding the cooperation and penalizing local governments that don't cooperate, I think it calls for more accountability.

and there's certainly there's ideological arguments on both sides.

But to be able to understand what's going on, to have the transparency, to know what's going on, to have these kind of investigations so people underst Well the well-being of children in Indiana has approved improved.

According to an annual assessment, the New Kids Count data examines youth outcomes, including health, education, economic and family factors.

Indiana's overall national ranking improved from 27th to 25th this year, with better outcomes in many areas.

Indiana Youth Institute President Tammy Silverman says now is not the time to slow down, but rather an opportunity for adult mentors to step up.

The world is changing and so is the experience to inform our children need people they can trust.

In their own lives.

The Data book finds an improved education ranking from 17th to 11th, and highlights growth in reading and graduation rates.

Indiana youth have historically lagged behind in health scores, but the latest assessment finds improvements.

There was an increase in child mortality, and the report highlighted a continued shortage of health care providers.

So, Laura, are Indiana youth in a better space?

By almost every metric?

Yes.

And one thing I really like about this report is they show you both state year over year changes, but then how we look relative to the rest of the country, our education metrics, look fantastic for most things.

And in particular, I think this got a lot of attention.

But it's worth noting we've never seen more Hoosier High School graduates than before.

And this is great in terms of their economic outlook.

It's great for the state.

It's great for the future, for what we can expect to see.

And there's so much great data in there.

I encourage anyone to look at the report.

It's 150 pages, but so many great improvements for our state.

It is an extremely long report.

Niki and it is also but a great tool for counties all over the years.

It's hard to read it right.

Like this comes out year after year and you're like, oh, you know.

So I was I was like pleasantly surprised.

You know, we're really making some strides.

And, I also love having a report that's using consistent data points year to year.

And so you can really chart and see, you know, what sections we still need to improve in and what sections we're making strides in.

the data is delayed though by a couple of years.

So this is actually reflective of, you know, how children were doing maybe two years ago when we had, a different circumstance.

should people consider that as they are looking at this, again, very useful tool for county by county across the state to understand how children are doing.

Sure.

I think that was a different budget cycle.

We saw an influx, like, you know, that was pretty unprecedented of, dollars from our budget to shore up in a lot of different areas.

So we saw a lot of resources coming through in that snapshot in time.

We have seen those resources.

it has not been as consistently applied.

So we're going to have to like like Niki Laura said, this is a great report to show time over time, how we're doing.

So, you know, we can have consistent data, from Kids Count and be able to track that.

And I think that's extremely helpful.

And Indiana still obviously, has some work to do when it comes to the well-being of all children.

good to see metrics, though, about mental health especially.

I was very, you know, pleased to see, you know, the number of children that are feeling, depressed was significantly down.

And, I mean, it's not all good news, but yeah.

The nation has work to do, quite frankly.

And I would say on the report, the good thing about it is it's colorful and it has pictures in it and stuff.

So, you know, that helped me kind of get through it a little bit.

But, I would say on the mental health side, Indiana has actually consistently been a leader of a public private partnership with schools around the state of actually placing master's level social workers into schools.

And so not a school counselor that, you know, gets pulled away to recess or lunch duty, like an actual dedicated person in there to take concerns and try to, you know, increase the amount of suicide interventions I know has been increasing as well, which on one hand is bad, but also is good thing we have somebody in there to try to address that.

I mean, it is a wealth of information for anyone that's looking well, that's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been political strategist Elise Schrock, Republican Chris Mitchem, Laura Merrifield Wilson, associate professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis, and Niki Kelley, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Week in Reviews, podcast and episodes at WFYI.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.