County Jail Facilities Discussion

The beginning of plans for the future of Champaign County's jail facilities took shape last night at the County Board's Facilities Committee meeting. Members of the community, including some local activists used the public participation opportunity to express concerns about a variety of issues.

• Getting the most bang for our taxpayer buck by using U of I expertise in better designs that themselves could pay back dividends.
• Concerns about expanding jails and putting money into buildings instead of programs for improving people's lives.
• Alternatives to jailing for transgressive behavior. 
• Openness to ensuring the needs of people in the satellite jail are met with improvements, but concerns about the mentally ill being jailed and a lack of investment in people and services outside of jail.
• A call for an assessment of options with jailing alternatives that could be more cost effective and beneficial. He highlighted a reintegration program in Sweden that deals with the most extreme cases of terrorism that may have applications in criminal justice rehabilitation.
• A visiting law professor with expertise in correctional law and restorative justice stressed the critical need for an overall master system plan from the beginning to the end of the process. She argued that a facilities plan should be DOA. She reiterated recommendations from the 2013 and 2017 criminal justice task forces for a coordinating council.

Sheriff Heuerman and Captain Voges of the Champaign County Sheriff's Office were first up on the agenda and laid out an informal presentation. The Sheriff noted his academic background in criminology and some shared concerns with the community. He said that the down town jail needs to be closed, that the plan needs a community approach, and a jail alone will not solve our problems. 

He stressed that there are some good things happening already inside the jail and before people get to the point of being jailed. He's passionate about helping people before they end up in jail, a result he considers a failure. He laid out a few key points:

• He was willing to work on jail alternatives.
• He's in support of lowering capacity (number of people they can jail), but increasing usable space for programs and safety.
• He doesn't want mentally ill patients in the jail, but that is a current reality that must be dealt with.

He emphasized that there are serious safety and liability issues, especially with the downtown jail which could be shutdown for at any time by a retiring judge or for non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law requires safe jails and the down town jail is used for separating inmates (e.g. gang rivalries) that would otherwise try to kill each other, people with separate needs, and inmates that have to be housed individually. The satellite jail logistically has no way to absorb these inmates and keep them separated.

He agreed that simply having more beds would inherently cause an incentive to fill them. He wanted to avoid the concept of "jail expansion" as he doesn't want more beds. They offer lots of programs and want to offer more, but they currently don't have the space to expand. Captain Voges explained that the community is mostly unaware of the numerous programs the jail has going (23 at the beginning of this year with a few more added already) while having only one classroom space.

Voges noted that the downtown jail isn't just behind the times on ADA requirements and technology, but they're having serious door and security issues where doors that need to be secure are "just popping." 

The board members' questions covered a lot of basic details, while others got into issues like the effect of Bail Reform locally. The effect was bigger in other areas that didn't already have some of the reforms Champaign was already implementing. Some hit on issues covered in a previous Cheat Sheet post on jail updates. An inmate with TB, for example, was isolated at facilities in Piatt County designed for that according to Captain Voges. She was answering a question on options to move down town jail inmates to other counties which got complicated.

She noted that she has a good relationship with jail administrators of area counties, but few are interested in taking on inmates that are someone else's problems. The others would only be willing to take the best inmates (i.e. without serious violence issues or medical needs). A couple or a few here and there may be all that's possible.

Board member Rector emphasized the separation issue as being the key issue, but hard to explain to people. He encouraged the Sheriff and staff to do what they could to inform the public on this. I have personally toured the facility and I'm not sure how best to explain it yet. That'll be a Cheat Sheet post for another day.

After the jail discussion the Facilities Committee went through the rest of the agenda rather quickly with updates and a quick approval. Here are some highlights:

• The sidewalk to the former County nursing home is nearing completion with the last few feet. There'll be some earthwork afterward to fill in around that'll get done as the weather allows. Member Ingram asked about the zig-zag, which was apparently to best line up with the County administrative building access and Nursing Home access, and also the park district owning a patch of property.
• The need for the Courthouse chiller replacements after short lives were explained as a design issue. The proximity to each other and their intake shortened their lives. Sheeting to separate the airflow has been implemented to deal with the issue.
• And the lockers for the Courthouse guests who need to store prohibited items have arrived and will be installed soon. The Sheriff hopes that the quarters collected by the locking mechanism will go to maintenance of the lockers. They're already working with the States Attorney and others to inform the public and will have change at the Sheriff's office (after someone asked if we were going to need to buy a change machine next).

The meeting adjourned at 7:45pm.