Trial Detainees – has been done.

One item that has not been done yet is:

1.     Establishment of a very minimum-security jail for those not in need of secured detention.  Mr. Bockman said, that as you heard on the tour of the jail tonight, we have very few people anymore who are not. One of the problems is that Electronic Home Monitoring is a wonderful idea, but you can’t use it for people you are afraid to have out in the community.  When your jail is full of people that are not appropriate to have out in the community, you don’t want them out there period.  Not with ankle bracelets or anything else. 

Items not on the Committee’s List that was done last year are: 

1.   Establish an Intensive Probation Program to replace ineffectual residential placement and that was put into place.

2.   Criminal Justice Council was established.

3.   A Family Program was established in 2002

4.   We added in the budget approximately $235,000 in operational costs with a view of speeding up the process by adding head counts to these departments.  Our thinking was, Mr. Bockman continued, that we could move people through the system quicker. 

5.    In 2002 the committee recommended for the electronic Homemonitoring had additional capacity but that it really wasn’t helpful for pre-trial any longer.

6.   There was a recommendation on the Day Center approach – that is being discussed.

7.    Pre-Trial Service Agreement is being discussed.

8.   We were told that the fifth judge and courtroom would probably not have much impact on the jail population because the traffic and divorce courts will probably fill up the judicial capacity on those two things.

9.   Not enough segregation areas in the jail.

Mr. Bockman summarized by stating that about 95% of the recommendations have been and are being utilized. 

Chairman Leifheit then turned the presentation over to the Sheriff to continue.  Sheriff Scott said that when they brought this problem to the committee in June 2002 that the average bed count was 85 beds and was still at 85 beds at the end of September 2002.  It was an issue that we had to figure out what we were going to do and that we would probably need money to house people outside.  He brought it to the committee’s attention for authorization to use contingency funds for then and to continue to use these contingency funds if he needed them so that he wouldn’t have to wait to house prisoners outside of the county. Since then we did not have to use them and have avoided using those funds, Sheriff Scott said.  In the 2003 budget there is a line item in the budget to continue to do this if the Sheriff’s Department experiences any problems in the future.  He said that he has spoken to many other sheriffs and that it is not fun to talk about a new county jail because nobody likes a jail, noboby wants one and nobody wants to go through this process.  However, we have a responsibility to bring this to the attention of the county board and the board responded by forming this current committee, he continued stating.

Chairman Leifheit asked the Sheriff how many times has he been over the bed limit this year?  The report that he submitted to the county board in June 2002 has not been updated it, but the average population has remained the same.  The technical capacity for the jail is 89 beds.  In 2002, as of June, we were above the technical capacity 11 times.  IN 2001 in that same time period we were over technical capacity 3 times.  The other capacity is functional capacity.  The functional capacity (80 inmates) as of the month of June 2002 was over the capacity 86 times.  All of last year (2001) we were only over by 72 times. 

Mr. Haines asked Sheriff Scott if he had a bottomline operations costs figure?  Sheriff said that he did not have one for tonight, but he can get one for the next meeting. Sheriff further said that the cost would be mostly for personnel, which is about 80%.  In 2002 they have 16.3 people assigned to the corrections division.  Medical costs were over $100,000.00 a year.  Food costs are over $100,000.00 a year.  Ms. Allen asked if he could recoup the medical costs.  Sheriff Scott said if they have insurance or Medicaid.  Lt. Joyce Klein said that we are not going to get money if they go on to prison, many of them come back and we don’t get money for that either.

Mr. Thompson asked about the Ogle County deal with the Federal Government that was turned down.  Couldn’t we try to pick up the deal?  Mr. Bockman said that whether or not it’s hasty to overbuild your jail, there are a lot of things to look at, not the least of which is - will your own judges fill it up?  Sheriff explained that this jail would not only house our county prisoners but also short-term housing for INS prisoners with a high turnover.  There is a minimum guarantee of the amount of money to the county throughout the contract whether they use the beds or not, Sheriff Scott further explained.

Chairman Leifheit said that one of the other suggestions made was the Day Center idea.  Sheriff Scott said that it’s nice if you have the type of people who come in and do what they are supposed to do, but the kind of people that we have in the jail currently are not really conducive to that.

Police Chief Don Thomas asked Sheriff Scott if there are beds available within a two-hour drive?  Sheriff Scott said that Ogle County was their goal in June of this year, other than that it would be Stephenson County but they don’t have enough staff, and possibly Boone County they could look at. 

Chairman Leifheit said let’s say we just sit here and do nothing and then you have 120 prisoners, what do you do?  There’s no beds open, what do you do?  Sheriff Scott said that even this summer they were putting them on the floor to avoid taking them elsewhere.  When we were in the 90’s for population they were there too.  Eventually we will have to avoid this situation.  We will be ordered by the court to have to either let people go or do something else.  Lt. Klein said that this problem happened in Adams County in September 2002 and they were ordered by the State to reduce their prisoner population by 21 prisoners from their jail.  Sheriff handed out a list of how other counties dealt with their overcrowding problems (attached to these minutes). 

Sheriff Scott then told the committee what options he thought that they could consider: 

1.     Review the two studies from 1990 and 1996 and this committee make additional suggestions, or have a new study done through the N.I.C. for free and see what they suggest.

2.      Hire a paid consultant to work with this committee; have them do a needs assessment and develop alternative plan along with this committee to eventually take this recommendation to the full board for consideration.

Police Chief Feithen said that it’s obvious that the jail needs more space.  He felt that the next step would be to bring in a consultant to do a space needs assessment.  Sheriff Scott said that in the 2003 budget there is $60,000.00 budgeted for a consultant to be hired.  Mr. Bockman said that he agreed with Police Chief Feithen’s suggestion and asked to have the consultants also come up with a way for the county to pay for their recommendation, whatever it is. 

Mr. Thompson asked at what point in time does this committee bring this recommendation to the full board?  Mr. Bockman said why prolong it.  The first night that you are comfortable making a recommendation to the full board for consideration, then do it.  Mr. Thompson said that this consultant would work directly with this committee, and everyone else along the way and accept input, etc., how soon do you want to have this committee make a recommendation to the county board?  Sheriff said that the budgeted money for 2003 for the consultant is not available until December 1, 2002.  Chairman Leifheit said that this committee could listen to the consultants’ presentations and then hire them.  We do not have to go to the board to hire a consultant.  Mr. Bockman agreed and said that this committee has the authority from the board to employ a consultant and was envisioned as something that you might want to do.  The committee agreed that they would need to know if the County needs to remodel the existing jail, add-on to it, build a new one, possibly rent space from somewhere else, etc., and how we would pay for the recommendation.

Moved by Mr. Thompson, seconded by Mr. Metzger, and it was carried unanimously to begin the process, within a sixty (60) day timeframe, to solicit two to three consultants to make half-hour presentations to the committee and then engage one of these consultants.

SET MEETING DATE AND TIME

It was agreed by the committee to meet on the second Wednesday of the month @ 7:00p.m.  However, because of the 60-day timeframe to request the two or three consultants to come to the next committee meeting with their recommendations, it was agreed to hold the next committee meeting on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 @ 7:00p.m. 

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Mr. Hutcheson, seconded by Mr. Haines, and it was voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                                        Respectfully submitted,

                                                                        _________________________________
                                                                        Sue Leifheit, Chairman

_______________________________
Mary C. Supple, Secretary