BY: CASEY SMITHIndiana lawmakers heard stark warnings Thursday that the state’s prison population is again nearing capacity while funding for local alternatives is shrinking. That change means offenders now serve a longer period of their sentence in prison, which Auxier said contributes to a higher prison population over time. Funding shortfallsShifting gears, Scott Hohl, executive director of Marion County Community Corrections, told the interim committee that probation and community corrections now supervise more than 106,000 Hoosiers daily. In Lake County, community corrections saw its award shrink by nearly $600,000, with reductions hitting its re-entry and veterans courts. “Unless we start funding these programs to get at the underlying cause of crime, we’re going to continue to have our constituents frustrated.