The biggest news on the Champaign County jail situation is that the crumbling downtown jail has finally been closed. From WCIA:
The Champaign County Sheriff’s Office announced the closure of the county jail in downtown Urbana.
The department secured funding from the Champaign County Board to move 70 inmates from the jail in 2021 with the intent of closing the facility due to safety and security concerns.
The department said, however, due to the increase in arrests for violent crime, the closure did not happen when planned. The department said this is a concern because of the dilapidated facility also has a staffing shortage of correctional officers. The Champaign County Board approved additional funding to house 70 inmates out of county last month.
That WCIA article here. Previous Cheat Sheet posts have gone into detail about conditions, out of date standards, safety issues, and more including inspection reports and photos here (page 7 of the PDF file). The upside of the move is getting both people incarcerated there and working there out of that dangerous environment. The downside is that leaves the County with expensive capacity issues. From the News-Gazette:
Closing the downtown facility is expected to increase security and safety for staff and inmates, and allow for 12 employees — among them nine correctional officers — to be relocated to the satellite facility, according to the sheriff.
The county is planning to build an addition to the satellite jail to make up for some lost space downtown, if a divided Urbana City Council votes Monday to approve a special-use permit necessary to proceed with that project...
With the satellite facility not large enough to accommodate all inmates in Champaign County, the cost of boarding prisoners in other counties — currently Kankakee and Macon — is expected to exceed $2 million this year.
That full article here.
There was a bit of intragovernmental drama with jail expansion opponents on the Urbana City Council looking at their options to approve or decline the "special use" From the News-Gazette:
The planned expansion of Champaign County’s satellite jail is on solid ground after the Urbana City Council narrowly approved a special-use permit needed to begin construction...
The permit for architecture firm Reifsteck Reid to continue work on a future addition to the satellite jail passed 4-3 Monday night. Council members Christopher Evans, Jaya Kolisetty and Grace Wilken voted “no” — all of them voted not to put the permit to a vote at last week’s committee-of-the-whole meeting...
Council members were charged to determine whether this use was “conducive to public convenience at the location”; that it was designed, located to and proposed to be operated in ways that will not be “unreasonably injurious” to the district or public welfare; and that the proposed use would fit the regulations and standards of the district in which it will be located.
That full article here. For opponents of the current jail consolidation plan, this could have been seen as an opportunity to delay or even eventually scuttle that plan. The fragility of the plan's future lies in the years of political battles to reach an agreement. The plan was probably only made possible, at this very specific moment in time, because of the pandemic related ARPA funds and shifting political power on the County Board among Republicans in the minority and different Democratic Party factions.
For supporters, the legal argument that a jail wouldn't be appropriate at a location where a jail was previously approved and already exists highlighted how this would be a political power play. They could appeal to process and their arguments for necessity.
For opponents, there are decades of demands towards eliminating mass incarceration starting right here at home. Urbana City Council alderman Christopher Evans argued passionately about his view that this expansion is unnecessary ongoing reforms and alternatives (see more in this public comment thread where Evans discusses the issue with the local States Attorney and others). He points to recommendations from the Community Violence Task Force report from nearly a decade ago, including:
Recommendation #3 Develop a System of Care for Behavioral Health Services...
"Increase crisis response and intervention in collaboration with local law enforcement that would include developing additional options to jail for persons in crisis, such as a Community-Based Mental Health Crisis Center (possibly including detoxification services) or development of proactive psychiatric advance directives for times of individual crisis"
That full Community Violence Task Force report is available here. One can see sporadic accomplishments or lack thereof on many of the details within those recommendations over the following decade. This included the Racial Justice Task Force, which itself recommended a County level coordinating committee and citizen involved oversight committee to see these recommendations through.
The Juvenile Detention Facility has also been dealing with staff shortages. From the News-Gazette last month:
Citing a “chronic and persistent staffing shortage,” the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center in Urbana started sending its inmates to three other counties this week, but only temporarily.
Court Services Director Mike Williams said he and others in the judicial system have been working for months to rectify the staffing deficiency that has plagued the east Urbana jail for minors ages 13 to 17 for the past 18 months.
For the next 90 days, those detainees instead will be held at juvenile detention centers in Vernon Hills in Lake County, about 170 miles north of Urbana; Joliet in Will County, about 114 miles north of Urbana; and in Normal in McLean County, about 60 miles to the west.
That full article available here with a lot of details on background and costs. At the last County Board meeting there was a question and answer opportunity with Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center Superintendent Keith Willis and its current staffing and space issues (jump to video).
For more News-Gazette coverage of the Urbana City Council votes on the jail consolidation "special use" permit:
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