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News :: Prisons |
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Champaign County Officials Discuss Local Jails; Hint At Expansion, Agree To Gather Information for County Board |
Current rating: 0 |
by Kimberlie Kranich
Email: kakranich (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
28 Jul 2005
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A group of six Champaign County officials met at the Brookens Administrative Center Thursday to discuss "how to handle the jail population and financing options," according to Steve Ziegler, first assistant state's attorney, who chaired the meeting.
The agenda distributed at the meeting identified the group as the "Jail Expansion Project Team." The agenda included the seal of the County of Champaign and the words "Champaign County Board Committee Agenda." |
Mr. Ziegler explained at the start of the meeting that the County Board had not taken any steps to form a committee and that his group was "gathering information for a committee to make decisions." He said that the "board has to decide if it wants a subcommittee and we don't even know if there will be an expansion."
When this reporter asked Mr. Ziegler about the discrepancy between what was printed on the agenda and what he said at the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Ziegler said to "cross out" the title "Jail Expansion Project Team."
"This is a meeting of representatives from the state's attorney's office, the sheriff's office, the courts, the county administrators, and the county board chair," Mr. Ziegler explained.
The facilities committee of the county board allowed the group to form after a presentation by County Administrator Denny Inman in June. According to Mr. Inman, at this meeting he presented information to the committee on the conditions of the jails. The downtown jail was built in 1981 and the satellite facility was built in 1996. Mr. Inman recommended to the facilities committee that they "put people together to talk about the issue."
The people who formed the group that met today were Captain Jim Young of the Sheriff's Office, courts administrator Roger Holland, county administrators Deb Busey and Denny Inman, County Board chair Barbara Wysocki, and Mr. Ziegler. Also attending were audience members Martell Miller, Patrick Thompson, Aaron Ammons and Carol Ammons.
Mr. Ammons asked Mr. Ziegler why there were no African-American members in the group since the prison population is mostly African American. He asked that two of the four African Americans on the county board be appointed to the group if and when the county board makes it an official committee. He also asked that an "average citizen" be represented on any such committee.
Mr. Ziegler said he would consider Mr. Ammons' comments.
The meeting was focused on identifying the information to gather to bring back to the County Board.
"The Board will need a considerable amount of information before it acts regarding the jail population, " Mr. Ziegler said.
According to Captain Young, the county's two jails have a maximum capacity of 309 inmates. He said there are currently 279 people in jail and an additional 40 are in home confinement. The average length of stay in the jails according to 2001 statistics is 58 days, said Captain Young.
The group agreed to gather the following information for the County Board:
路 Current information on both jails including bookings by month, high daily population by month and average daily population by month.
路 Services being offered to inmates.
路 How inmates are classified and how their specific needs are being accommodated.
路 Financial options for dealing with the prison population and needs.
路 The correlation between the numbers of people booked for a crime and the number of police officers on the streets.
路 Data on mental health issues and who is receiving mental health services in the jails.
路 Changes in state and federal legislation over the past 10 years that have had an impact on the jails
路 Data on how comparable counties are keeping their jail populations down
路 Grant opportunities
The next county board meeting is scheduled for August 18 at the Brookens Administrative Center. |
This work is in the public domain. |
Comments
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Re: Champaign County Officials Discuss Local Jails; Hint At Expansion, Agree To Gather Information for County Board |
by chris evans
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
02 Aug 2005
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In 1992-95, when the current Sattelite Jail was being proposed by then, Sherriff Madigan, the public debate over whether a new $11 million jail was necessary was summarized by one sentence: we need it because there will be more crime and more criminals to lock up.
No one questioned the proposition or analyzed jailing and why that happens. It's easy to assume someone does something against the law, police find them, take them to jail. How hard is that to understand?
Hopefully, in this next phase to build an even bigger jail to go along with our big Courthouse, our big Youth Detention Center, our ever-growing 4 police departments, and our expanding docket calls- we might question this time whether this technique of computerized tracking of those we choose to proscecute, is this really working and worth the constant expense. The questions cited above that this ad-hoc "illuminatea committee" proposes to advise the County Board with, are not the only issues regarding crime and incarceration.
The idea that jailing causes more crime may seem counter-intuiative, but the results are there for all to see. Despite constructing a jail that was supposed to satisfy space needs until 2010, the jail filled up beyond capacity from day one. Why? With whom? For what? Will these questions ever be bothered with? Doubtful.
The business of law enforcement is to stay in business. There are alot of nit-picky charges, officer's discretion arrests, and plain old harrassment that the white middle class are never subjected to, even when it is they who do most of the drugs and drug dealing, traffic violations, and domestic abuse.
Law enforcement prefers to patrol and prey on those people someone has determined "undesirable". There won't be any hands raised to volunteer to go home should crime and the need to lock people up ever be really reduced. If we let a thousand go, we need a thousand to replace them to keep the machine going. Better to keep a segment of the population uneducated, jobless, and addicted, than actually solve problems. I don't prefer conspiracies, but what else can we think looking at a typical day in the courthouse? |
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Re: Champaign County Officials Discuss Local Jails; Hint At Expansion, Agree To Gather Information for County Board |
by chris evans
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Aug 2005
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While it's my responsibility to care about what I care about, and do what I can do; I am a little surprised this issue of the 30 year problems of the criminal justice system in our county isn't of greater concern to others on this website. Maybe it's vacation season, but I hope the energy for justice, a good and fair, and effective police and law enforcement community is near equal to who should apologize over what gets said at a press conference at a certain post office. I accuse no one of apathy, and I applaud people like Ricky Baldwin and Carol Ammons, Martel Miller and many others laboring constantly; and maybe I'm beginning to sound like a one-note Anna, but I think local police and courts is government at your door step, worthy of primary concern.
Perhaps it's too hot and everyone is enjoying the season to get down to such business. Please note, however, the governments aren't taking any breaks as you can see from Ms. Kranich's reporting. |
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Re: Champaign County Officials Discuss Local Jails; Hint At Expansion, Agree To Gather Information for County Board |
by district 9 voter
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Aug 2005
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Hmm, maybe the void is a result of all the strategizing going on to oust Beckett, Wysocki, and others on the County Board that control this mess.
Just a guess. |
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Re: Champaign County Officials Discuss Local Jails; Hint At Expansion, Agree To Gather Information for County Board |
by chris evans
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Aug 2005
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Here's a good question to start off with:
what kind of crimes should be punishable by
police officers tying your hands behind your back, taking you from your job or home-family and friends, seize your property, place you in a cinder block cell with total strangers, give you little to nothing to do except wait and wait for dinner trays, and force you to stay there for months to many years, thus losing your job, losing your class schedule for the semester.
What kind of crimes need that kind of punishment?
That's the debate that never gets done. And yes, I agree there are crimes that qualify for that kind of punishment, though getting to sit and do nothing while in this confinement seems wasteful to me. (and no, making Bob Barker shampoo for 3 cents a day is not "doing something".)
The sloppiest thinking law enforcement seduces the public with is painting with the broad terms of "criminal" and "law breaker" all being lumped together so that when considering a "criminal" or a "defendant", we think of them as "rapist", "murderer", "violent thug", "pedophile" when that "criminal" sitting aimlessly at the County Jail may actually be an indigent defendant unable to afford bond on a contempt of court charge for forgetting a long ago traffic violation.
It would help everything if law enforcement were given a list of priorities from their bosses, that would be us the tax paying public, on who we think ought to be locked up and who we could find other alternatives for.
The judiciary and the legistlative branch are too quick to write laws and sentencing guidelines that are beyond sound, cost efficient, restorative justice. (For example, anyone proscecuted under the Theft with a Prior Theft law knows how absurd the possible sentence can be.) Under the present system, even victims of crime are hardly compensated.
If you think jail is a good idea overall, read Wednesday, August 3rd's News-Gazette, where State's Attorney Julia Rietz carefully rationalizes a sentence of probation in a particular case and lets slip her assessment on the effectiveness of jailing someone.
Remember, this whole labyrinth of the criminal justice system, from the socks the police wear to the bathroom the judge pees in, is paid for WITH OUR MONEY. We have a right to have input on how our money is used.
Or it's easier to just let "the experts" decide it all for you. And they most assuredly will. And when they do, they will make sure they have a secure, well paying job after the dust settles, whether or not anything makes sense or actually works. |
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