DeKalb County, Illinois

Minutes of the
Law & Justice Committee

November 28, 2011

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LAW AND JUSTICE COMMITTEE

November 28, 2011

The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, November 28, 2011 at 6:30p.m. in the DeKalb County Legislative Center's Gathertorium.  Chairman Marlene Allen called the meeting to order.  Members present were Ken Andersen, Riley Oncken, Stephen Reid, Anita Turner and Derek Tyson.  Others present were Sheriff Roger Scott, Margi Gilmour, Marilyn Stromborg, Regina Harris and Clay Campbell.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES 
Mr. Andersen asked to have the minutes show in the first paragraph on the 1st page of the minutes, line 3, where it says “Others present” should say Members present.

Moved by Ms. Turner, seconded by Mr. Andersen, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from October 17, 2011.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Moved by Mr. Oncken, seconded by Mr. Andersen, was it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

DRUG AND DUI COURT UPDATE - MS. STROMBORG
Ms. Stromborg said in her report for the Drug Court (attached to these minutes), page 2, highlighted in blue, it states that as of May 2011 there are 36 graduates of the Drug Court Program.  The graduation rate is 70%.  Evaluation of screening scores at intake compared to graduation scores found no statistically significant differences between the scores except for the following:   “a significant difference in the following criminal thinking scales between intake and graduation; entitlement; justification; power orientation; cold heartedness; criminal rationalization and personal irresponsibility.  She also stated that there is a significant decrease in the risk of reoccurrence; decrease in taking steps which is an indication of motivation to change; change in substance abuse problem; and readiness to change.”

With regard to drug court referrals the report states that there were 179 referrals with the majority of them being between 22 – 27 years old; 73.7% were male; 78.8% (141) were white; 14% (25) were African American; and 4.5% (8) were Hispanic.

Ms. Stromborg then discussed the major issues for the DeKalb County Drug and DUI Courts.  She said that since there is a lack of state funding for substance abuse treatment in residential settings which has resulted in significantly increased waiting times for Drug Court and DUI Court participants.  There is a lack of residential treatment facilities, half-way houses or recovery homes in DeKalb County which necessitates sending participants out-of-county.  She also said that the DeKalb County Drug and DUI Courts designated counselor housed at Ben Gordon Center is funded by a federal grant which will end in about a year.  She said that they really need a residential home for men.

The next graduation date for the Drug Court will be in May 2012.

COURT SERVICES REPORT
Ms. Gilmour, Court Services Director, said that the Adult Report shows that they had 60 new cases in October with 18 cases that were satisfactorily discharged.  They have about 465 active cases.

There were 10,000 hours ordered for Community Restitution with 5,000 hours completed.

With regards to the Juvenile Report, there were 7 detainees, with 1 for the 2nd time, 4 for the 1st time, 2 for the 2nd time and 1 for the 6 time. 

Ms. Gilmour stated that they would be meeting with a recruit this evening with regards to the Safe House.  She felt that there would be a youth in the home this week sometime. 

JAIL REPORT
There were 133 inmates for the average daily population for the month of October 2011.   Sheriff Scott thanked the committee for their support during the budget process.  They paid a little over $75,000 in outside housing in October. 

Mr. Andersen asked Sheriff Scott how much would it cost the County if our prisoners were housed here in our Jail?

Sheriff Scott said that the County pays about $60 a day for our prisoners to be housed in the Boone and Kendall County Jails.  Our daily cost here is about the same amount, however, we would not be paying for transport costs and staffing costs.

STATE’S ATTORNEY’S REPORT – MR. CLAY CAMPBELL
Mr. Campbell, DeKalb County State’s Attorney, briefly reported to the committee that with the recent murder of a NIU student off campus at a party, he thanked the local law enforcement and what they have done to help.  He said that this year there were between 850 to 900 felonies filed in our county.  He said that these are the most cases ever filed.  He has a new prosecutor in his office who replaces an attorney that left so that she could stay in Chicago. 

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT
Ms. Harris, DeKalb County Public Defender, said that there are a large number of felonies in our County.  She explained that more people are committee crimes in our community who are not from here.

OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Steve Reid brought up the L.E.P.C. request for $6,000 during the recent budget process.   He said that possibly the County could look at using funds from the Opportunity fund to fund this $6,000 request. 

Chairman Allen said that she encouraged Mr. Frank Bierlotzer, with LEPC to visit with the fire districts to help with this need.

Mr. Oncken suggested that they try to do a fundraiser to help to raise the money that they need. 

The committee also discussed that they should look to the cities and towns for funding support.

Chairman Allen mentioned to the committee that she is cancelling the December 2011 meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

                                                                        Respectively submitted,

                                                                                                                                                                                                               _______________________________________

                                                                        Marlene Allen, Chairman

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