DeKalb County, Illinois

Minutes of the
Law & Justice Committee

January 23, 2012

PRINTABLE DOCUMENT (.pdf)

DRAFT

LAW AND JUSTICE COMMITTEE

January 23, 2012

The Law and Justice Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, November 28, 2011 at 6:30p.m. in the DeKalb County Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  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 Margi Gilmour and Clay Campbell.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES 

Moved by Mr. Oncken, seconded by Mr. Tyson, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from November, 2011.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Chairman Allen added Clay Campbell to the agenda for the State’s Attorney’s update under 4a.

Moved by Mr. Andersen, seconded by Mr. Tyson, was it was carried unanimously to approve the amended agenda.

COURT SERVICES REPORT

Ms. Gilmour, Court Services Director, said that the Annual Adult Report shows that they had a very busy year in 2011.  The community restitution hours showed the most growth as there were 123,000 hours ordered last year.

With regards to the Juvenile Report, there was a young man who was placed in residential placement at Focus House.  They may move him to the safe house in the near future.  There is a foster couple in the safe house now who have 3 children of their own. 

There were 3 detainees, with 2 for the 1^st time, and 1 for the 8^th time.

Ms. Gilmour stated they have hired a new drug court probation officer.  He is from DeKalb. 

Mr. Reid asked Ms. Gilmour if the new safe house foster parents receive any stipend?

Ms. Gilmour said that they get a monetary stipend of $1500 a month and some benefits, plus the home.  The utilities and internet are paid for too, by the County.  They get reimbursed for any food eaten by the county placement children.  They are now taking care of one kid who has recently been placed in the safe house and they may get possibly two more kids.

PUBLIC DEFENDER’S REPORT

The Public Defender was not present so Chairman Allen encouraged the committee to call Ms. Harris if they had any questions regarding her monthly report.

JAIL REPORT

The committee discussed that the jail report numbers went down slightly from the previous month.

STATE’S ATTORNEY’S REPORT – MR. CLAY CAMPBELL

Mr. Campbell, DeKalb County State’s Attorney, briefly reported to the committee that the Greenwell murder trial began today.  In six months his office may have more than one trial going on. 

He also stated that there are some retired NIU professors who are schooling kids that have non-violent offenses to get them back into the G.E.D. program.   They are working in donated office space near Aberdeen Court.

DISCUSSION ON GUEST FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

Chairman Allen approached the committee about suggestions on guests to invite for future committee meetings.  The committee discussed inviting someone from the Ad Hoc Jail Committee to come before them to discuss what status the jail expansion project is at.  There was another suggestion of addressing the problem at NIU and the community.

Chairman Allen thanked the committee for their ideas and asked them to continue thinking of other people, agencies or topics throughout the year that they may want to invite or discuss.

ADJOURNMENT

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

                                                                        Respectively submitted,

                                                                                                                                                                                                               _______________________________________

                                                                        Marlene Allen, Chairman