Jasper man gets four years in work release, community corrections after sentencing

A Jasper man will serve four years in Dubois County Community Corrections after a domestic battery plea and a child molesting probation revocation were resolved together, leaving him under supervision instead of being sent straight to prison.

John E. Davis McElwain, 23, was sentenced by Judge Nathan Verkamp in Dubois Circuit Court. The Dubois County Prosecutor’s Office, led by Beth E. Schroeder, handled both the new misdemeanor domestic battery case and the revocation matter tied to a child molesting case. Court officials said McElwain had admitted to a petition to revoke probation in that case and had been serving a six-year probation term since 2023.

Verkamp ordered one year on work release through Dubois County Community Corrections for the domestic battery case, along with a no-contact condition involving the victim. The revocation case added three more years in Dubois County Community Corrections, and the two terms will run consecutively for a total of four years.

The sentence puts McElwain into a system built around control, work, and treatment. Dubois County Community Corrections says its work release center is an alternative to jail or prison, and that it is treatment-based. Participants must obtain and maintain one full-time job while living under supervision. The agency says it supervises and houses work-release participants in a 170-bunk facility. It was established in January 1991, and its current building opened in 2003.

Indiana’s Department of Correction says community corrections is a community-based supervision alternative to incarceration that uses evidence-based practices to reduce recidivism and improve public safety. In McElwain’s case, the court added anger management, an abuse intervention program, and ongoing sex offender management and monitoring, creating layers of oversight that go beyond a standard jail sentence.

The structure of the sentence reflects how Dubois County courts can respond when a new offense overlaps with an existing probation case. A probation violation in the child molesting matter triggered additional punishment, while the domestic battery conviction brought its own separate term and restrictions. McElwain now remains under active supervision, tied to treatment requirements, job expectations, and a no-contact order meant to protect the victim in the domestic battery case.