The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, May 9, 2005 @ 6:30p.m. in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Sue Leifheit called the meeting to order.  Members present were Eric Johnson, Rich Osborne, Pat LaVigne, Roger Steimel, Anita Turner and Pat Vary.  Others present were Kenneth Johnson and Margi Gilmour. 

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          Moved by Mr. Johnson, seconded by Ms. LaVigne, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from the March and April 2005 meeting. 

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

          Moved by Mr. Steimel, seconded by Ms. Turner, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda. 

JAIL REPORT

          Chairman Leifheit said that the Sheriff’s Department is well over budget on the housing of inmates outside the county for this year so far.         

          She also mentioned that the average daily population for April 2005 was 84 inmates with males outnumbering females.  So far, Chairman Leifheit said, the situation has not improved at all.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

          Mr. Kenneth Johnson, DeKalb County Public Defender, said that his numbers are pretty consistent.  He informed the committee that he would be loosing Ms. Politte to maternity leave soon.  He said the good news is that Ms. Morreale, who used to work in his office and left because of the birth of her new child, will be coming back on a part-time basis to take Ms. Politte’s caseload over for her while she is gone.  Ms. Morreale will be working 3 out of the 4 days for court calls and, this should help his office out tremendously while Ms. Politte is on leave.  Mr. Johnson wanted to thank Mr. Ray Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, and Mr. Gary Hanson, DeKalb County Deputy County Administrator, for all of their help in this matter.

          The juvenile numbers are lingering on the high side currently, said Mr. Johnson.  They had seven (7) juvenile cases in court today, which is very high. 

          Because of the murder case that his office is working on, there have been many professional service charges and phone calls made, but he feels that he will be able to meet his budget on this case.  He is trying to work out something with the State’s Attorney’s Office to help out with some charges.

          He did want to report to the committee members that he has had some complaints filed by his clients at the jail about the public phone there.  He said that they have changed the phone system at the jail recently and it is costing his clients a lot more than before.  They have been able to talk for about 10 to 15 minutes for $5.00; it’s now about 5 minutes for $5.00.  Mr. Johnson said that he has been speaking to Mr. Campbell about the problem. 

COURT SERVICES MONTHLY REPORT

Monthly Report:

          Ms. Margi Gilmour, Director of the DeKalb County Court Services Department,  said that in her adult court services report there were 22 cases for the month of March, which was their largest amount this year.  The Community Restitution Services numbers showed 39 adults were referred and 11 juveniles were referred for March.  Ms. Gilmour explained to the committee that the adults have about 12 to 24 months to complete their CRS hours. 

          Ms. Turner asked if all the hours are to add up to the 746 number for total caseload?  Ms. Gilmour said no, that the administrative cases are included in that number.  She said that those numbers are included in her annual report. 

          With regards to the juvenile report, there was 1 person for detention admission in the month and another juvenile detained in February.  Both were released at the end of the month.  There are still 2 placements at Arrowhead.   

Annual Report:

          Ms. Gilmour briefly reviewed her 2004 Annual Report for the committee (on file in the County Board Office and the Court Services Department).  She said that the Court Services/Probation Department was established due to statutory requirements due to the Illinois Comprised Statutes (The Probation and Probation Officers Act).  They try to respond to the needs of the court and the needs of the community. 

Their mission statement (page 6) speaks about providing a continuum of services designed to hold offenders accountable to the orders of the court and to ensure a level of protection to the community and to respond to the needs of victims, while developing the competency level of the defendant towards the values of the community.

Some of the areas that she highlighted were found on page 8 that speaks about the probation officers in her department.  She has 3 regular probation officers currently.  She said that there were 507 home visits that were completed in 2004, a 17% increase when compared to the number of home visits completed in 2003. 

The court referrals (page 10) increased from 2003.  The offense categories of criminal damage, theft and battery/assault account for 46% of the total number of delinquency petitions filed by the State’s Attorney’s Office in FY’04.  She said that there has been an increase in juvenile domestic battery and they are trying to respond to that. 

On page 14, it shows that in new active cases there were 52 new cases assigned to court supervision and 52 cases assigned to probation.  She said that a majority of the new cases added consist of delinquency cases.  Other kinds of cases also include truants, runaways, indirect criminal contempt cases placed under the jurisdiction of the Court and transfer-in cases from other counties and states.

On page 15, it covers the terminations of cases.  The Court also dismisses cases each month when all conditions are completed.  Early terminations occur when juveniles complete all of the court ordered conditions prior to the designated discharge date; however, juveniles must serve at least 50% of their sentence.  Juveniles are sentenced to a determinant period of Probation or Court Supervision.  A scheduled termination occurs when a juvenile has completed all court ordered conditions within the ordered time frame and the case terms on its face.  There were 66 cases that were successfully terminated in 2004, either by early termination or scheduled termination.  

On page 17, it discussed the detention figures for FY 2004.  The number of detention service days increased by 25% compared to FY 2003.  The $102,560 draw down amount from the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Kane County balance in FY 2004 also increased 25% compared to FY 2003.  Since FY 2002 the average daily population has been fairly consistent with an average daily population of 3.  In FY 2004 the average monthly expenditure from the IGA was $8,547.  If the monthly average usage remains consistent with FY 2004, the balance of the IGA is expected to be depleted in early 2006.

Page 22 speaks about the administrative sanctions and cases that are included in her adult and juvenile reports that were discussed earlier this evening, said Ms. Gilmour. 

In the beginning of January 2002, the Juvenile Court Services, in conjunction with the State’s Attorney’s Office – Juvenile Division, started an Intake Services Program.  The Juvenile Intake Officer and the Juvenile Assistant State’s Attorney meet regularly to screen referrals to the Juvenile Courts for appropriateness, seeking to divert the less serious cases.  The Juvenile Intake Officer meets with each juvenile and family that is appropriate for the Intake Services Program.  Cases that are diverted from court are referred to the appropriate resources in the community and may be supervised for up to twelve months by the Intake Officer.  Cases are referred back to court due to new criminal offenses, technical violations, or by the juvenile’s request.  There were 76 cases that were diverted from court in 2004. 

The Intensive Probation Supervision Program was implemented in July 2002 (page 26).  The goal of this program is to provide intensive supervision to referred juveniles while they remain in their home and community as an alternative to placement in a costly residential facility.

There are two full-time juvenile probation officers who share a caseload made up of juvenile offenders who meet the program criteria for heightened supervision and monitoring.  At a minimum, the juveniles are seen four times per week at home, school or in the community and are sometimes seen more frequently.  The IPS Officers schedules include coverage until 7:00p.m. on weeknights and during the day on weekends.  Juveniles remain on IPS until it is determined that it is appropriate for the juvenile to be supervised on a regular caseload or until the Court orders an alternative sentencing disposition.  In 2004 the two officers made 2500 field visits. 

          Ms. Gilmour stated that the average active caseload for the 4 Adult Probation Officers in her office amounts to approximately 117 cases on any given month.  This is a 14% increase when compared to FY 2003.

          Page 58 of her report covers her budget and page 63 explains her goals for 2005. 

          The committee thanked Ms. Gilmour for her very informative report. Ms. Gilmour said that she will include the number of administrative cases from now on in her monthly report.

ADJOURNMENT

          Moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Johnson, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                          Respectfully submitted,

         __________________________________                                                                                            Chairman Sue Leifheit

__________________________________

Mary C. Supple, Secretary

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