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THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sandra Ahten
Email: spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!) |
13 Dec 2004
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(Let’s Shed Some Light On It.)
Terrell Layfield killed himself at the Champaign County jail on Saturday, December 4th. This was the third suicide that has taken place within the walls of the Champaign County Jail in the last 6 months -- this compared to an overall state count of approximately 8 or 9 suicides per year - in total – in all city and county jails in Illinois. In other words if statistics for this year hold true. Champaign County will have had 30% of all jail suicides in Illinois. |
Terrell Layfield killed himself at the Champaign County jail on Saturday, December 4th. This was the third suicide that has taken place within the walls of the Champaign County Jail in the last 6 months -- this compared to an overall state count of approximately 8 or 9 suicides per year - in total – in all city and county jails in Illinois. In other words if statistics for this year hold true. Champaign County will have had 30% of all jail suicides in Illinois.
There are two county adult jail facilities. Both administered by elected official Sheriff Daniel Walch. One of these facilities is located right across from the courthouse in downtown Urbana, and the newer facility is located east of Solo Cup in Urbana at 502 South Lierman Ave.
Mr. Layfield, who was, 25 killed himself by hanging from a bedsheet in the downtown jail facility. The other victims, Marcus Edwards,18 hanged himself with a bedsheet in July. And Joseph Beavers, who was 37 hanged himself using a telephone cord.
WHAT OF THE OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION?
All of the arrests in Champaign County, whether by Urbana, Champaign or Rantoul city police officers or county sheriff officers, are held at the Champaign County jail. There are approximately 280 inmates in the jail. After the second suicide in July, it was recognized that an outside agency needed to investigate the incidents. Incredibly, the Urbana Police Department was assigned the task. The Urbana Police Department with Lt. Metzler, as the investigating officer was seen to be enough of an “outside agency” that they were given the task of the investigation.
I have called Lt. Metzler repeatedly to get copies of the investigation, but have been met with unreturned phone calls and hostility from his staff. I filed a Freedom of Information Act, and, was today, informed that the first suicide was not being investigated by the Urbana Police and the second report was not yet available. (The second suicide was in July.)
Who was assigned the investigation of the third suicide? Once again this was assigned to the Urbana Police Department -- this time with the help of Illinois State Police crime scene technicians. Notice this is “help from technicians” but there has been no indication that there would be over site by any truly outside agency.
Statistically most jail suicides happen early in the detention process. Over 50% of jail suicides are committed in first 24 hours. 28.5% in first three hours. Most jail suicides happen for arrests involving intoxication. Only one of the local recent jail suicides bore this out. Joseph Beavers who had a history of arrests related to intoxication and battery was arrested for battery and he committed suicide shortly after his arrest. The two younger victims, Marcus Edwards, who was just 18, and had been arrested for residential burglary had been held for approximately 4 months. He had plea bargained a guilty plea on July 9th and was awaiting sentencing into the state prison system. He died on July 11.
Mr. Layfield, 25, had been arrested in March for cocaine possession and obstruction of justice and was released by meeting bond. He was arrested while he was out on bond and so back in jail in July. He was found guilty of the obstruction of justice charge and sentenced to 66 months in prison in October. Awaiting his next trial, he hung himself.
Despite occasional spikes in individual prison systems, the suicide rate in state and federal prisons, as well as local jails, has declined over the past two decades, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. But suicide is the number one cause of death in most local jails and remains the third-leading cause in state and federal prisons, behind natural causes and AIDS, making suicide a continuing concern for corrections officials.
WILL CHAMPAIGN COUNTY BE SUED?
Citizens who are concerned about human rights will be concerned because they are anxious to find out why these community members chose suicide and why it was able to be carried out in our jail. But citizens who are concerned about our county’s budget should also be concerned. It is the responsibility of the sheriff’s office to provide safety for all inmates and that includes those that are depressed or mentally ill. Liability could very well be placed at the feet of Champaign County by the legal system, should any concerned family member of a victim decide to litigate. It is common for most jail suicides to result in litigation.
According to the NCIA, the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives -- http://www.ncianet.org/
“Twenty years ago it was unusual for a lawsuit to be filed following an inmate suicide. Currently it is unusual when a lawsuit is not filed. If successful, jurisdictions and their insurance carriers often incur large monetary judgments when it is found that policies were non-existent or substandard and staff were inadequately trained to identify an obvious suicide risk.”
So because of the litigation factor, as well as a human decency factor, Champaign County should be doing every thing possible to make sure that this abnormal spike is thoroughly investigated and the cause determined by an outside agency.
The NCIA also says that solutions such as television monitors, tearaway blankets and other “preventions tools” are usually just band aid approaches…” These do not address the causes of the suicides. These suicides need to be investigated as to why the suicide was attempted, why it wasn’t anticipated, and why it was successful.
WHAT USUALLY CONTRIBUTES TO SUICIDE IN JAIL
One study shows [http://66.165.94.98/update/prisonsuicide.pdf] that several environmental and operational factors might contribute to the suicides: 1)
inadequate or unavailable psychological services at initial intake and during incarceration, 2) poor communication among staff, 3) perception of self-injurious behavior as a means of manipulation, 4) basic elements of the institutional environment that constrain personal efficacy and control, 5) limited staff training and direction in suicide prevention, 6) limited staff direction in responding to suicide incidents, and 7) investigations directed primarily toward establishing an appropriate response by staff without the accompanying thorough investigation of the causes of the suicide.
SHERIFF’S WALCH’S SOLUTIONS
To date Sheriff Walch has said that the guards are now doing more random checks of cells in addition to the 15 and 30 minute routine checks. He has also said that some structural changes will be made in the cells. Other than that his only solution is to have asked mental health officials to prepare a brochure or letter for inmates and their families, giving information on what to look for in behavior that might indicate a person wants to harm himself. Friends and family of inmates as well as other inmates are being asked to watch for possible problems.
To understand the ludicrousness of this – laying the responsibility of for suicide watch at the feet of the family members or other inmates, you have to fully understand the conditions at the jail. Read the second part of this story. “The Harsh Hand of The Champaign County Jail” (Or listen to IMC Radio news from Dec 13 that includes interviews with family of inmates.) |
This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license. |
Comments
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Lisa Chason
chason (nospam) shout.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
14 Dec 2004
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As suggested in Sandra's article I called the Sheriff's office and spoke to his secretary. I told her I had read on the IMC website about problems at the county jail concerning the recent suicides and the way visiting hours are set up. I asked her if she knew about the website and these stories. She said she knew the site but hadn't read these postings. I suggested she do so because their phone number was there and they may be getting more calls. I said I was extremely concerned about the problem discussed and wished to register that with the sheriff. She asked me if I wanted the sheriff to call me back. I said that wasn't necessary but perhaps I will call again and do that, or others who call can take this step. |
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IMCRN Feature THREE JAIL SUICIDES |
by dave
daveberliner (nospam) mac.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
14 Dec 2004
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IMCRN 12-13-2004Here is a temporary link where you can listen to Sandra tell this story first hand for the IMC Radio News.
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by pm
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Dec 2004
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How do we know they were suicides and not hangings? |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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Good job, Sandra. This is a topic rarely discussed and long overdue. Equally important are the reasons why our jails are overcrowded. In 1996, when a new 11 million dollar sattelite jail was proposed, nary a conversation was heard as to why we needed more jail space. The best we could get was then Sherriff Madigan drawling on WDWS, "'Cause dere's gonna be more crime." What kinds of crime? Perpetrated by whom? Why? Those questions were left unanswered and remain so to this day. It's easier to just scare the public into believing there's a boogie man just around the corner and he'll get you and your children if taxpayers don't fork over the money to law enforcement. What an irony that the stereotype of the pimp drug dealer luring your beautiful daughter to strung-out whoredom, is best fulfilled by the campus bar owners. Very disturbing in this county, and it's been this way for decades, is the type and quality of legal representation for indigent defendants. The public defender's office has been understaffed and overwhelmed for always, and getting to talk to a lawyer or even prepare for a trial is a ludricous idea from behind bars. Without proper investigations of cases by competent attorneys, this county remains vulnerable to rogue police officers who falsify police reports, fabricate evidence, and commit perjury in the courtroom. Sounds like a farfetched bad movie, but it does occasionally happen in this county. (Can I get an amen Maria Thompson?) With the deck stacked against a fair trial, defendants are plea bargaining to things they needn't and striking deals with the devil in testifying against their friends. Worse, the public defenders office has been colluding with the state's attorney's office in the face of the overcrowding and enormous caseload backlog. Defendants languish in jail wondering what happened to the 120-day rule to a speedy trial, when their public defender has obliterated that right by asking for a continuance at behest of the State. Once the defense asks for a continuance, the 120-day rule no longer applies. Rarely do unpaid public defenders leave the office or courtroom, and rely mostly on written police reports for the facts of a case. Unless the friends and family members of the defendant strongly advocate for their inmate: that is, do the research, do the hunting for witnesses, insist upon constitutional rights be adhered to; you can rest assured it won't happen by the public defenders office most of the time. They simply don't have the time, and their caseloads are beyond American Bar Association Standards. There is almost no accountability upon our legal community. That is why Piland became so brash and bold in his inconsistencies: slap every north end kid with a felony for any little thing, while students or the middle class get excuses and accomodations no one of low income would ever see. Hence, Brady Smith, hence Luther Head, and psychologist Feinberg. Justice is blind? Justice is white and middle class. Martel Miller and Patrick Thompson would have those eavesdropping charges still if it weren't for the bad press and consistent efforts on the part of Mr. Miller. Disturbing still is the parole plans of all these people we send to jail. They are somebody's husband, somebody's partner, somebody's father- but they are stricken from the economic landscape and we wonder why recidivism rates are so high. The only game in town is the black market for recreational drugs for many of these inmates. Consider too, the average sentence in the department of corrections is 3 years. To the mocking of everyone, these wise-acre judges and lawyers pontificate so shrewdly that there is no rehabilitation in prison, that it's run by gangs, and no drug addict is ever going to get cured of his addiction in prison. When challenged then that perhaps some laws should be changed, they protect their economic self-interest by reminding us, "we need the prisons as a deterrent, and to teach people not to break our laws." They know darn well, nothing happening in prison is going to stop people from having fun, or being angry, or giving up, or slaking a lust. In fact, a recent study showed 75% of prisoners have used drugs while behind bars. The acceptance and use of homosexual rape in our prisons is a stunning reminder that people who break the law are no longer a citizen, no longer anyone to regard- unless it's a celebrity or a politician in need of relief from the "media firestorm" as Piland describes it, and then it's off to the comfortable confines of the understanding Betty Ford clinic for them. We get accused of being liberal bleeding hearts who excuse criminal behavior among these "thugs" for advancing the argument that the system is perpetuating crime- not eliminating it. The statistics of increases and decreases in crime are controlled by the police, sherriff, and proscecutors office, and those numbers are usually designed to do two things: scare you into believing more crime is happening- pursuade you the police and jails are reducing crime. That explains why the numbers go up and down every six months. Never has the university thought to do a study about local crime. If you think race is important, what about alcoholic intoxication on crime? What about performance in school in relation to crime? What about economic background in relation to crime? What about geographic residence in relation to crime? It's comical to watch Officer Murphy represent the Champaign Police Department and explain that his agency is not racially profiling nor racially patrolling with one side of his mouth; and then from the other side of his mouth displays a geographic map of where every probationer lives. The dots were predominantly located north of University Avenue. Big important question: do black people commit most of the crime in this town? The lawyers want to say no, everybody does crime. And as one who grew up here, they are right. I attended the white kids' parties- we broke dozens of laws every night, but even if caught by the police, we were only told to keep the music down. Funny how no one knows about the conditions of the jails, the conditions of our legal system, the failure to reintegrate institutionalized people back into our community. Perhaps its because the police are very careful not to bother us while we are smoking our weed on the porch. If only the Swandlund Building Anti-Chief Occupiers had been treated like any low income person would have been. Let me see what you think about racial bias and prejudice from inside the county jail. Hey, no excuse for real violent thugs, and you ladies could use better protection, and you property owners who've had your stuff stolen and vandalized, deserve some compensation. This diatribe is not to defend the wicked. But it is a request that for once could we work on understanding crime, and really work on reducing it? I doubt I could get any volunteers from the police department or the state's attorneys office to quit their job should crime ever really be reduced. Instead we are going to get another sales job soon about how we need more millions for more jail space. Who cares? Lawbreakers deserve to be homosexually raped anyway, and they are no one's constituency. Let's start charging them for every meal. That way we won't have to lose so much money on the most ineffective taxpayer buy there is. Where are you now, political conservatives? |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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As for Anna's continued attack on everybody messaging on this site, all I can say is, if Sandra "Athens" were the enemy, we wouldn't have the problem. Would somebody please do something exactly the way Anna wants so she may yap in peace elsewhere? Oh yeah, I forgot, no one can satisfy her need to be the leading victim. Maybe we can chip in and buy her a television station so she can run a 24-hour whine-a-thon how everyone has treated her so miserably. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by goodriddancegipper
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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I concur with Local Yocal regarding Anna's post, which needlessly attacks Sandra. I also suggest that we ignore it, especially based on what we can predict the responses will be, and address the various merits of the other more relevant posts on this topic.
Actually, I have a question for pm. Does your question imply that these might have been murders instead of suicides, when you ask whether it is known if these were hangings and not suicides? If so, that might be an interesting question about overcrowding, but I'm not sure about the degree to which overcrowding exists at Champaign County. I'd like to learn more about that.
I have another question regarding Sandra's post. Are there standard measures, either at Champaign County jail or elsewhere, to prevent such suicides from occurring in the instances Sandra mentions, i.e. with arrests involving intoxication, close monitoring, et cetera? I'm wondering because there may be objections to using restraints, and there certainly may be a lack of staff, or even procedures, to monitor people detained for such offenses. I guess what I'm saying is that this very interesting article from Sandra suggests that possible remedies ought to spur a much wider debate on the structure, intent, and very nature of our prison systems, which perhaps Sandra had in mind anyway.
Well done with this piece, Sandra. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Anna Epelbaum
aepelbaum (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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Amazing, three females are unified to fight my comment, which was in addition hidden for assurance. Madams, as I perfectly know what wrong with you is, I don't need to continue to find out. Thank goodness, I am not depending on anyone of you either physically or mentally and spiritually. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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To goodriddancegipper,
before the opening of the new Sattelite Jail in 1998, bed space at the county jail was at 141. The Sherriff impressed it upon the public, twice, that he was housing prisoners in other counties at $35 a day. With the new Sattelite Jail, bedspace increased to 265 and was promised to be sufficient to 2010 according to jailhouse architects and local crime analysts. Someone may want to double check my numbers here, since they are off the top of my head. Since day one of the opening of the new jail, the jailhouse population has always, and this is true, always hovered well above capacity. Numbers in the 300's are not uncommon for our county. To study further, I suggest the Jan. 10, 1999 News-Gazette cover story and a simple call to the sherriff's office will yield the current number of inmates. Interest in alternative sentencing, faster expediting of certain cases, and revamping the juvenile justice system has grown in response to the overcrowding. All that has been thwarted by the incessant and insistent filing of felony charges by the former State's Attorney, John Piland. His interpretations of law, such as a youthful shoplifting, or retail theft charged as a Class 4 felony Burglary (which made his U of I Basketball player case in November of '03 all the more outrageous); or his belief that borrowing someone else's lunch card at the local high school rose to felony forgery- these kinds of interpretations of the criminal statutes by Piland, has caused a ridiculous cattle call of cases and a stuffing of humans in our county jail. During my last visit to pre-trial hearings in just one courtroom, Courtroom A, and all these hearings were set for the same time of 9:30a.m.; it took an hour, an hour to get to the first '04 case. And this was in October of this year I attended these proceedings. What has played with rural voters around here, in the past, is the tough on crime stance from our lead proscecutor. We'll see if Julia Rietz has a more sophisticated approach. She will be under enormous pressure to lock 'em up as always, but she has promised during her campaign, a more judicious use of the prisons. Piland was a schitzophrenic mess: declaring our county suffered from about 40 bad guys doing most of the crime, sometimes playing the nice guy saying he prefers to consult with victims before proscecuting and taking it easy on young people for "youthful indescretions", declaring law enforcement color blind because proscecutions for meth were against mostly against white folks, admitting prisons don't rehabilitate, and then at the end of the day, bragging about his 622 people (I don't know over what time period that 622 figure represents) he sent to prison during his campaign while never releasing a racial breakdown or type of crimes of such numbers. Point is, the jails have been filled over capacity primarily because we had a State's Attorney who liked to make a name for himself with his tough guy act.
Aw, but what about the idea there have simply been more people doing more crimes, and that's why our jails are filled? All three police departments here want to take credit for lower crime rates. You look at the numbers, over time, there has never been a way for this county to accomodate all the people we arrest. I was shocked, somewhat relieved I guess, to learn that police recieve calls to about 40 incidents per night. And they may arrest maybe a dozen on a heavy night. There are alot of incidents police let slide without an arrest. It's these choices, by the police, and by the proscecutors that needs examining. Hence, Miller/Thompson's video was a big threat to police. As a community, we do need to re-examine what our story is- why we are drinking, druggin' , fightin' and stealin' as much as we are? It's a complicated issue, but I am safe on saying that prison and jail (unemployment) is gasoline on the equation most of the time. There is that rare weirdo, the rapist, the murderer, the pedophile, the fistfighting drunk, the repeating thief that needs to be away from the rest of us, but those people are not going to overcrowd your jail. Our criminal justice system is a blind machine right now that just chews up people because that is what's written to do, there is no real system yet to turn people around, and officials think this is what people want, and the public figures it's your own fault if you get caught in the system. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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To goodriddancegipper,
a more accurate assessment of our jails
No funding for attorney position
Published Online Feb 21, 2003
By MIKE MONSON
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - Concerns about Champaign County's financial condition outweighed jail overcrowding worries Thursday night when the Champaign County Board rejected budget amendments to fund an assistant state's attorney's position.
In 15-8 and 19-4 votes, the county board rejected separate $65,000 budget amendments that would have continued funding for an accelerated-disposition attorney in the state's attorney's office, as well as including money for a legal secretary.
The main duties of both positions would have been to concentrate on moving cases to help alleviate chronic jail overcrowding.
The first vote would have used the county's shrinking general corporate fund balance to pay for the positions, while the second vote called for using public safety quarter-cent sales tax dollars.
In both votes, Republicans accounted for all of the minority votes.
Both of the accelerated-disposition positions have been financed since 1999 through a federal grant, but the grant funding runs out on Feb. 28. Last fall, the Democratic-majority county board rejected a GOP amendment to include funding for the positions.
Democrats on Thursday gave a variety of reasons for rejecting the budget amendment, which has been pushed by Deb Busey and Denny Inman, who are county co-administrators, and Sheriff Dan Walsh.
“It has been the policy of the county board that when you have grant funding, there's no guarantee the county board is going to be able to fund the position” after the grant expires, said county board Chairwoman Patricia Avery, D-Champaign. “Unfortunately, that is the case this year. Our budget cannot afford these positions.”
The county's general corporate fund ran a $1.05 million deficit last year, dropping the general corporate fund balance to $2.9 million.
Proponents of the budget amendment argued that the position pays for itself through reducing the number of prisoners, who cost the county more than $50 per day to house and feed.
The county's two jails are supposed to house a maximum of 279 prisoners, but jail population averaged 323 inmates during the calendar 2002 year, with overflow prisoners often kept in cramped holding cells. According to State's Attorney John Piland's office, the accelerated-disposition program saved the county $258,000 by reducing the number of inmate days by 5,123.
Republicans argued the savings outweigh the cost.
“I think it's a good program that pays for itself,” said Scott Tapley, R-Champaign. “I think it's foolish to discontinue it. We save $250,000 and it costs only $80,000 to fund it.”
But Democrats argued Piland has plenty of money and manpower in his office to focus on moving cases, with 20 attorneys, 18 staff members and a budget of $1.9 million. One staff attorney position, concentrating on traffic cases, remains vacant, they noted.
Champaign County Auditor Michael Frerichs passed out a memo to county board members stating that when county department heads were asked this fall to cut their tentative budget by 3 percent, Piland focused his cuts on personnel and left largely untouched his budget for commodities and services. Other departments did just the opposite, he said.
“I encourage our state's attorney to make cuts to his commodities and services line items similar to those made by nearly every other department in order to find the money to fund this program,” Frerichs wrote. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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Bond jumper boon to county
Published Online Apr 13, 2003
By MARY SCHENK
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - From a quality-of-life perspective, Champaign County officials would just as soon John Lofton never came to this county.
But given that his brief time here almost two years ago recently made the county $157,500 richer, it's hard to get too upset.
Prosecutors believe the 37-year-old Chicago man came to Rantoul in May 2001 to intercept about 42 pounds of cannabis that had been shipped there from San Bernardino County, Calif.
Task Force X investigators were notified of the arriving shipment by California authorities, and after Lofton picked up the cannabis from a home on Steffler Street on May 10, 2001, they arrested him with the packaged cannabis in the back of his Lincoln Navigator.
The next day, Lofton was charged with unlawful possession with intent to deliver cannabis, a Class X offense, which in his case would have meant a sentence of mandatory life in prison because he has two prior Class X convictions out of Cook County.
Judge John Kennedy set his bond at $5 million on May 11, 2001, and about two weeks later agreed to reduce it to $2 million. Lofton then posted 10 percent, or $200,000 cash, and was released from custody.
For the next two years, on 19 different occasions, Lofton appeared in Champaign County court for hearings in his case. Most of those were pretrial conference calls at which his case was merely continued until the next month.
In February of this year, his attorney, Jeffrey Vollen of Chicago, told Judge J.G. Townsend that Lofton was in the custody of federal authorities in Wisconsin.
When Lofton failed to show up at the Feb. 26 pretrial, Assistant State's Attorney Steve Ziegler asked the judge to forfeit Lofton's bond and issue a warrant for his arrest. On that day, Townsend set a hearing on that request for April 2 and, after a brief delay because the courthouse was evacuated for a bomb threat, Townsend did indeed forfeit Lofton's bond.
(Being in custody in another jurisdiction is not an excuse for missing a court date. The law states if you've willfully absented yourself from a court hearing, you're subject to bond for- feiture, Townsend explained.)
Townsend allowed a request by Vollen that he be paid $22,500 out of the posted bond for the almost year's worth of work he had done on Lofton's behalf.
Minus the 10 percent fee that the circuit clerk routinely retains for the cost of processing bonds, that meant there was $157,500 left.
“That's nice,” county co-administrator Deb Busey said.
Busey explained that the money funnels through a revenue line item in the state's attorney's budget but is eventally transferred to the currently strapped general corporate fund.
“At least it begins to make up for shortfalls from state shared revenues, which include income tax, use tax, corporate personal property replacement tax. They will not come in at what we had anticipated,” she said.
Circuit Clerk Linda Frank said the forfeiture is the largest she can recall in her 12 years in office.
Forfeitures don't happen very often. In calendar year 2002, there were a total of 3,999 misdemeanor and felony cases filed. For the fiscal year closest to that - December 2001 through November 2002 - there were 172 cases where bond was forfeited. That's about 4 percent of the criminal cases.
And the amount of bond forfeited in all those cases was $100,027, or about $581 per case on the average, Frank said - a far cry from John Lofton's $200,000.
When a person posts bond - 10 percent in cash of the amount set by a judge - Frank's office holds the money and invests it until the case is concluded. At that time, the posted bond is almost always used to satisfy court costs and fines.
Defendants can also post real estate or stocks and bonds as bond, but that almost never happens. Frank said she and her staff could recall only one time during her tenure that property was put up as an assurance a person would return to court.
Among the court costs typically levied are fees for the local anti-crime fund (for example, Crimestoppers), circuit clerk's automation and document storage funds, and state's attorney, sheriff, court security, and violent crime victims funds. If a client has had a public defender appointed, he may have to pay something for that lawyer's service, and if a defendant receives probation, he can expect to pay a monthly fee for being supervised.
If there's any bond money left after all those costs are paid, it gets refunded to the person who posted the bond.
Judges set bond based on a number of factors set out by the Illinois Legislature.
“Statutorily, (bond) is to ensure appearance, to make sure there's no threat to the public. Those are the two main ones,” said Judge Ann Einhorn, who, as the judge most often in arraignment court, sets the majority of bonds.
Other factors judges consider are the person's ties to the community, whether he or she has full-time employment and the nature of the crime.
Crimes of violence almost always get higher bonds than property crimes, Einhorn said. And while out-of-town drug dealers don't necessarily always get the highest bonds, Einhorn said the judge has to look at the level of the offense and the potential penalty. If a person is convicted and a prison sentence is mandated, the incentive to return to court may not be as great for that defendant.
Defense attorney Tom Bruno of Urbana, who coincidentally tried unsuccessfully earlier this month to get a $100,000 bond for Lofton's co-defendant lowered, complained that judges use bond as a “way to force a prepayment for fine and costs” instead of as a device to ensure a person's continued appearance.
“The inability of a local person to make a cash bond, and therefore have to stay in jail, should be measured against what would happen if they fail to appear for court. Many of these people don't have the resources to leave the city limits. If they fail to appear, it would only result in them getting picked up at a later date,” he observed.
Assistant State's Attorney Duke Harris, the prosecutor assigned to Lofton's case, said defense attorneys make Bruno's “prepayment” argument all the time.
“Bond is set by the judiciary. All we have (as prosecutors) is a recommendation, the same as the defense. With jail overcrowding, the judiciary has to find a middle ground. Not everybody that rolls through is locked up. There are a substantial number of cases where defendants are released on recognizance (no cash required),” Harris said.
“Bond is not supposed to be penal in nature. But you don't have to sit through many pretrial conferences to see how many don't appear. If everybody appeared, it would be a perfect world, but people reoffend,” he said.
Harris was none too anxious to see Lofton's bond forfeited, preferring instead to continue the case until Lofton might be finished with any sentence he's serving in Wisconsin and have him tried here.
That's because with a conviction, street value fines are taken from the bond and divided - as spelled out by statute - among various agencies, including the police that investigated the crime and a juvenile drug education fund, Harris said. Those police agencies can use that money for more drug interdiction, including the purchase of equipment for use in drug investigations.
Harris noted that now that Lofton's bond has been forfeited, he can also be formally charged with violating his bail bond.
Harris explained that the charge is one class of felony lower than the crime for which he jumped bond. In Lofton's case, that would be a Class 1 felony and, if convicted, the sentence of four to 15 years would run consecutive to the conviction for the original charge. But Harris said he wouldn't have much to gain if Lofton is convicted in the drug case and sentenced to life in prison.
Harris said he intends to pursue Lofton's prosecution whenever Lofton is released from custody in Wisconsin.
You can reach Mary Schenk at (217) 351-5313 or via e-mail at mschenk (at) news-gazette.com. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
|
Overcrowded again
Published Online Nov 17, 2002
By MARY SCHENK
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - It's almost as sure as death and taxes: jail overcrowding in Champaign County.
When the satellite jail opened on South Lierman Avenue in Urbana six years ago in October, the capacity for holding prisoners more than doubled from 131 to 279.
But for several months this year, the jail population has been well over 300, meaning many men are sleeping on mattresses on the floor. The highest number in recent months was on Oct. 28 when the population was 356. By Wednesday of last week, it was back down to 307.
"It's unbelievable. It's just a pain. What can you say?" said Capt. Jim Young, who oversees the jail for the Champaign County sheriff's office. "The last three to four months, we've averaged 20 to 45 over" capacity.
There's not one simple explanation for it.
"You get peaks in the population two to three times a year, and you have to deal with it," Young said.
Among possible causes, according to Young and Sheriff David Madigan, are Task Force X drug investigations that result in large numbers of arrests of suspected drug dealers with high bonds, arrestees from Bears games, more police on the street thanks to federal grants, or rock concerts that attract illegal drug users.
The overflow inmates end up having to sleep in the booking area of the satellite jail, the only area where extras physically can be absorbed, Young said. The satellite jail holds 148.
During the day, the extras go to other pods. At night, they're locked in the holding cells, which are intended to be temporary stations for people waiting to go through the booking procedure.
The upshot is, when there are that many extra bodies, the ability to classify inmates decreases dramatically.
"When your numbers are below (capacity), you can classify people - put the mental health people where they need to be. When you can't, that's when you have inmate altercations, more (inmates) going on watch because of the friction between inmates in the cell blocks," he said, explaining that inmates may require even higher levels of supervision.
Not only does it add to stress for the inmates, but it ratchets up the tension and work levels for the correctional officers.
"The pods hold 60. You add 20, and you're feeding more, giving more medication. All the support services go up," said Young. "We can't just open the doors."
On Feb. 4, Madigan wrote a letter to LaShunda Hambrick, chairman of the county board's Justice and Public Safety Committee, sounding the alarm about the high inmate numbers and asking the board to do something about it.
Madigan said he did so for two reasons.
First, he said, the facility is "insufficient" to secure the number of inmates being brought in.
"And, knowing I was going to go out of office, I wanted to get the liability off myself and put it where it belongs - on the county board. So I notified them of that. They did what boards do best. They formed another committee," Madigan said.
That committee met May 13, and again on Nov. 7 and 14.
Members of the committee include Hambrick and fellow county board members Steve Beckett, Greg Knott and Harold Hoveln; Judge Jeff Ford; Public Defender Randy Rosenbaum; State's Attorney John Piland; and Bob Schwieter of the court services department.
In May, they heard from Lynn Branham, a visiting law professor at the University of Illinois who has done extensive research on jail overcrowding and alternatives to incarceration. On Nov. 7, they heard from Michael LeBlanc, an architect from Baton Rouge, La., whom Madigan said he met while doing a jail audit.
"He does financing and leasing of bed space to the feds (federal authorities). So I told him of our problem, and he said he would be up here," Madigan said.
For last Thursday's meeting, Madigan said the committee heard from a consultant from Indianapolis whose expertise is in jail overcrowding.
"I'm trying to get this committee in gear. You can't stick your head in the sand and think this problem is going to go away," said Madigan. "We've been dealing with it for my 20-some years with the sheriff's office. It never has gone away. I came in office with it and am leaving office with it.
"We've made big strides. We built the satellite facility. We're doing everything we can, but there are probably other things that can be done. That's what I want this committee to look at. It's just dangerous for the staff and the people that are in jail. It's hard for me to look at the staff and say, 'Hang in there.'"
Alternatives to incarceration that have been used with some measure of success include a prosecutor from Piland's office who is devoted exclusively to "accelerated dispositions" - that is, speeding uncomplicated criminal cases through the system in order to keep the jail population down - and a home incarceration program that involves having an inmate wear an electronic bracelet that correctional officers can monitor.
At the county board's budget committee meeting Tuesday, Piland warned that the grant that pays for the accelerated disposition attorney will expire March 1 and won't be renewed. Piland said the county board would be well advised to find $60,000 to pay for an assistant to perform those duties, or face the possibility of even more jail overcrowding.
"That $60,000 could be spent potentially in a month or two on out-of-county boarding" if an assistant state's attorney isn't hired, Piland said. "You're going to have people sitting in jail much longer than in the past."
But the budget committee didn't even discuss Piland's suggestion during the meeting.
Meanwhile, the home incarceration program hasn't been used very much. Young said it depends on the judges who are handling traffic and misdemeanors. There are currently only nine people in the home incarceration program.
Neither Young, Madigan nor Hambrick was willing to say the county might be ready to consider that nasty "B" word - boarding.
The year before the satellite jail was completed, the county spent about $900,000 boarding inmates at other county jails, Madigan said. That was at a price of about $25 to $35 per day per inmate.
That cost is closer to $52 to $55 a day now, according to sheriffs who have the luxury of renting out space.
"We would be able to help them out," said DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey, whose jail in Clinton has a capacity of 66 prisoners. He is currently renting space to the federal government and to McLean County to house its prisoners.
"Obviously, the advantage with us is that we're back and forth to Urbana with federal prisoners, so we would be able to help them out with transporting," Massey said.
Ford County Sheriff William Kean Jr. said he also has room should Champaign County come knocking at his door, even though he's already renting to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Marshals Service and McLean County.
The Ford County jail in Paxton has a capacity of 61.
Kean said he charges $52 a day; Massey said the going rate is $50 to $55.
Young said the last thing he wants to do is get back into the business of boarding.
"There's traveling and overtime expenses. I do NOT want to do that. That creates just as many problems (as overcrowding)," he said.
Hambrick agreed that boarding is something neither Democratic nor Republican board members want to consider.
"We just built the satellite jail. I don't want to see us have to add on to it space-wise. In the justice system itself, we have some alternative ways of sentencing. We have a new sheriff (Republican Dan Walsh) coming on board. We'll be meeting with him and the judges. We need to come up with some alternative measures to incarceration.
"The first solution is not to find more money," she said.
Demand outpaced space from Day 1
The Champaign County sheriff's office and jail at 204 E. Main St., U, across the street from the courthouse, opened in August 1980. Over the protests of taxpayers, it was built for roughly $5 million and was "just about" overcrowded on moving day, according to Sheriff David Madigan.
Chronic overcrowding caused county officials to go to the public seeking a tax increase to build the satellite jail on South Lierman Avenue. That building, which cost roughly $10 million to construct, was dedicated in October 1996.
Downtown jail capacity was 74 when it opened. Adding bunks to cells in 1985 brought the capacity to 131.
The capacity of the satellite jail is 148, bringing the total number of prisoners that can be housed safely and according to standards in both facilities to 279. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
|
Panel considered to study jail overcrowding
Published Online Mar 5, 2002
By MIKE MONSON
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - Champaign County Sheriff David Madigan told county board members Monday night it's time they “went on the offensive ... and seek a solution to the problem of jail overcrowding.”
And members of the Justice and Public Safety Committee appeared willing to go along, agreeing to consider appointing a committee made up of county board members and justice officials to study the jail crowding problem. A letter will go out to several justice offices this month asking each office to designate someone to serve on the proposed committee.
Madigan caused something of a stir a month ago when he sent a letter to justice committee members telling them the jail crowding problem had become “not just a one-day situation, but an everyday occurrence.” He noted that the jail population on Jan. 31 stood at 356, well above the 276 beds available, even considering that 23 prisoners were being housed at other locations.
Madigan concluded that letter by saying he was serving the county board notice that under state law the county's two jails were insufficient to secure the prisoners confined there.
On Monday, Madigan said the jail population was at a more manageable - but still overcrowded - 292 inmates.
The sheriff noted that a number of steps to ease overcrowding are already in place, including home incarceration, weekend sentences and work release, accelerated disposition, drug court, diversion and weekly meetings with judges to go over inmate lists.
“I do not profess to be an expert,” Madigan said. “I encourage this group to start talking to see what we can do to alleviate the problem of jail overcrowding. ... I look at building a building as the last alternative.”
But the sheriff also noted that “our system of justice is based on punishment.”
“Jail is a punishment,” he said. “We didn't create the system. We just work within the framework.”
County board member Steve Beckett, D-rural Urbana, noted that information provided by Madigan showed that on Feb. 19 nearly 40 of the inmates were there on traffic-related offenses. Beckett argued that any committee created will have to engage the judiciary and get them to participate in any solution.
“You can design the most beautiful programs in the world, but they won't do any good if the judges don't accept them,” Beckett said. “You've got to have judicial participation.”
The committee agreed to take up the issue again next month.
In a related matter, Madigan said he had contacted the Illinois Department of Corrections about possibly using, in the future, the downtown Urbana jail as a work release center for state prisoners.
Madigan said that he would prefer any future jail expansion to take place at the satellite jail on Lierman Avenue, so the county jail could be under one roof. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
|
Defenders bracing for more cases
Published Online Nov 29, 2003
By MARY SCHENK
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - Randy Rosenbaum decided not to travel to his mother's family in Kansas City this Thanksgiving. He's got a little extra work to do.
Come Monday, Rosenbaum, the Champaign County public defender, and five of his colleagues in the office will inherit 392 new cases.
The transfer of cases is the result of a decision made earlier this year by Presiding Judge J.G. Townsend that the county's poor, accused of serious crime, will be better served by a fully staffed public defender's office than by private attorneys on contract with the county to represent them.
The switchover coincides with the beginning of the county's new fiscal year.
"We're up to the challenge. The system has to work. We'll make it work," said Rosenbaum, adding in his self-deprecating style: "Who really wants hair?"
At the monthly pretrial call on Nov. 19, the four contract attorneys who will lose their jobs - Diana Lenik, Bruce Ratcliffe, David Rumley and Walter Ding - asked that most of their cases be continued until the Dec. 17 pretrial call.
However, they announced that 20 cases needed to be tried in December.
That means that Rosenbaum and his felony co-workers - one of whom doesn't even start work until Monday - had all of five working days to prepare those cases for trial.
Rosenbaum had a meeting last week with the contract attorneys, asking them to organize their files as best they could before handing them over to him. He was going to dole them out to his staff, trying to spread out the difficult cases and making sure that each staff member has about the same number of cases.
He said State's Attorney John Piland assured him that his staff would be as cooperative as possible during the transition, making sure plea offers were made in a timely fashion and agreeing to continue cases where appropriate. Townsend told him the judiciary would be accommodating as well.
"We're basically bracing ourselves and doing the best we can to be prepared," Rosenbaum said.
He estimated that for the first few months his attorneys, even with two additional felony attorneys on board, would probably have their workload doubled, from about 50 cases to 100.
The American Bar Association recommends that defense attorneys not handle more than 150 felony cases in a year in order to give each the attention it deserves.
"Probably every public defender in the state exceeds it," Rosenbaum said of the standard. "I do want to stress that it's going to be tough for us the first few months just to absorb it. In the next few months, it will be much more manageable."
Handling felony cases, in addition to Rosenbaum, are Kevin Nolan, who is hoping to leave the office should he be elected state's attorney in Douglas County in 2004; Janie Miller-Jones; Scott Schmidt; Dave Appleman; and Anthony Ortega.
Appleman, who has been with the public defender's office a total of eight years in two stints, was promoted to one of the two new felony positions created by Townsend's decision. Rosenbaum hired Ortega for the other.
Ortega has been an assistant public defender in McLean County for three years and starts his new job Monday.
Rosenbaum said it's a sad commentary that about half his staff is needed to handle serious criminal cases.
Seven other attorneys in the office handle all the other cases: two do misdemeanors, two do traffic, two do juvenile abuse and neglect and one handles juvenile delinquencies. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by goodriddancegipper
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
|
Local Yocal:
Many thanks for posting these articles addressing my queries. As a relative newcomer to the area, I hope I didn't sound skeptical about overcrowding. I think it's endemic, and certainly was in my old neck of the woods, but had not seen these articles in the News-Gazette.
I certainly agree with your assessments of our prison/judicial system, and how it highlights larger problems within our society that end up playing themselves out within the walls of our jails. The incarceration rates in the US are just insane, especially the sheer numbers of people imprisoned for non-violent relatively minor drug offenses. There are major and violent incidents requiring long-term detention, to be sure, but we long ago turned into the incarceration nation, and it reflects poorly on the country as a whole. The suicides that have occurred recently at Champaign County jail are horrible events. I'll comment further when time allows.
Many thanks again.
GRG |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Dec 2004
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You're quite welcome GRG. You are a rare breed to take an interest in this topic. Sadly, Sandra's work represents a groundbreaking in this town. No one questions what happens over on Main Street in Urbana. We are a very conservative community when it comes to this, and the most hypocritical too, since we've hung our economic development hat on alcohol. The racial disparity is disgusting...
since we know white people do the majority of drugs, our county has embarked on racial patrolling, excusing the students and the middle class for the same behavior...
New jail, but same old problem
Published Online Feb 7, 1999
By MIKE MONSON
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - On a recent day, there were 296 of them.
Two-hundred ninety-six men and women whose antisocial behavior had landed them in Champaign County's two correctional centers.
The population at the county jails has skyrocketed over the past year. It's at the point where the monthly average daily population has exceeded 300, beyond their rated combined capacity of 279 beds.
The News-Gazette recently obtained from the sheriff's office a daily jail census, from Tuesday, Jan. 19, to analyze what kinds of offenders are filling the county jails and why.
What we found:
- Drug offenses are the most common charge against inmates, with property crimes and violent crimes not far behind.
- The Champaign Police Department makes more arrests than any other department.
- Seventy-one percent of the inmates on Jan. 19 were black, in line with the statewide average.
- Other Central Illinois counties have implemented programs, not yet used here, that help keep their jail populations down.
- The majority of the people in jail, 59 percent, were awaiting trial.
Champaign County officials are attempting to deal with the growing jail population. They're planning to add 14 more jail beds and to hire an assistant state's attorney whose sole focus will be on moving cases through the system.
But the overcrowding problem is still proving unsettling, if only because it was not anticipated. The new satellite jail, which can hold 149 inmates, opened in November 1996 and was expected to meet the county's needs for the next decade or more.
But the new jail was filled to capacity within a year. Local officials blame tougher domestic violence and drunken-driving laws, more police on the streets and an increased emphasis on stopping drug trafficking in northeast Champaign.
Census figures show that 98 of the inmates had been sentenced to the county jail, many for misdemeanor or traffic offenses that cannot result in a state prison term. Another 22 inmates were awaiting transfer to state prison, or were being held on a state Department of Corrections warrant or hold.
The 296-inmate figure doesn't mean that all those inmates are behind bars.
Six of them were on the county's home incarceration program, wearing electronic bracelets on their ankles; three were serving weekend-only sentences; 20 were on work release, where they get to leave jail to go to work, but must come back afterward; seven were in state mental health facilities; and one inmate was an escapee who was still at large. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
17 Dec 2004
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At last night's (12-16-04) County Board meeting, Republicrat Chairman of the County Board, Barb Wysocki, had this to say to the press about an unidentifed "correctional inspector" who has been inspecting our County Jail:
"He considers our jail to be one of the more progressive in the State of Illinois in terms of precautionary measures we put out- our intake service seems to be much more detailed than what happens in a lot of other places throughout the State of Illinois. And yet, obviously, things like this [suicides] happen."
The news report continued to say that according to the "corrections inspector", suicides are on the rise across the state, Sherriff Walsh hopes he can increase communications between inmates' families and inmates so as to improve the inmate's mental health, and there will be a survey about the jail conducted by an outside agency.
Don't know what all that means precisely. It's clear, however, that The Champaign County Jail is considered to be one of the finer jails in the State. Look for few changes other than maybe an additional day added to the visiting times maybe, and as always, there will likely be a new salaried position created for a counselor of some kind. The phone call costs for collect calls from the County Jail is too big a cash cow to let go of, so it would be surprising if that changed.
Between the lines in the text of this discussion is the elephant in the road: Champaign County incarcerates the mentally ill, and have been doing so since 1990 when Adolf Meyer in Decatur closed and was converted to a women's prison. Throughout this year of jailhouse suicides, is the dumbfounding quiet among the officialdom from Champaign County Mental Health. They well know that if their clients get in trouble with the law, their clients will become property of the Department of Corrections from now on. Involuntary commitments to a mental hospital are reserved for the very few middle class offenders. Forensic Psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jeckel no longer considers criminal behavior symptomatic of mental disease and his pre-trial reports never object to the use of imprisonment- unless you are a middle class psychologist living in the Cherry Hills suburbs of Champaign who is "sucking mud". Despite the Public Defenders inability to communicate with defendants who have mental health histories, their recognition that these defendants cannot assist with their own defense, they do not seek second opinions to Jeckel's fitness reports. Likewise, alcoholism and illegal drug abuse is not a mental health issue for low income people according to Dr. Jeckel and the circuit judges. They see these things as strictly character issues and as aggravating factors toward a prison sentence. For example, in Saturday's December 4th News-Gazette, Judge Difanis described a defendant with a long history of drug abuse since she was nine years old as a, "...hopeless and useless junkie whose only accomplishment is that she's fertile and able to bring children into this world." (One has to wonder how fair it is to have your drug case heard by a judge who, as a State's Attorney, made a name for himself by being tough on drug crimes.) She was given nine years in prison- a sentence longer than you would get for pedophilia or rape in this County. The story about the closing of the mental hospitals, and the shift to incarcerating the mentally ill instead of committing them to hospitals, as used to be the case, has yet to be researched by.........Sandra, have you any more time to spare? |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by EMS
e18s_62656 (nospam) yahoo.ie (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
18 Dec 2004
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If there is such a problem, why isn't the NAACP involved? If there's abuse, why doesn't the State's attorney know about it? He/She is the REAL cop in charge of enforcing the laws through judicial means.
I hope the new States Attorney is up to the task.
Have you ever spent any time in the jail? Have you ever been an inmate, however briefly? What do you personally know?
Finally, would this be an issue if these persons hanged themselves at home? Would your indignation be different? Would your sorrow be the same? Would you even know?
I'm wondering all these things. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
19 Dec 2004
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I've been locked up in the county jail on Main street for 95 straight days. I have numerous friends who have been sent to the state prisons. And I am indignant about the criminal justice system because I don't think the truth gets told in court often enough, the laws get applied too harshly against minorities and low-income folks, and does not get applied at all to those of means and whiteness. I would add that the effects of prison are inhumane and does not protect the public from crime in the future in most cases. If that's what you're wondering.... |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by paul
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Dec 2004
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I'm hoping more people will contribute to this thread -- very interesting information. local yokel, are you presently in the jail? |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Dec 2004
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Congratulations Paul! You've just inadvertantly revolutionized legal defense in our community! Internet access and email access in the County Jail for the inmates! What a great idea! That would improve communications between inmates and their families as Sheriff Walsh has promised to do after the 12-16-04 County Board meeting. Boy, I wonder if public defenders could avoid the fact that inmates are seeking their counsel day afer day as they are able to do now. Other side effects the enormous costs of a collect call from the county jail and the overwhelming number of felony cases has on inmates is the fact you cannot contact your lawyer to prepare for trial or evidence issues from inside the county jail. The public defenders office does not accept the collect calls from the county jail. How bizarre is that? Internet emails would show time stamps of when lawyers ignored communications with their clients. Oh but you know those darn inmates, they'll just want to get into the porn sites, and can't have that.
No I am not currently in the county jail. For proof, it would be the fact I have access to this site on a computer. (Not that Anna would ever believe that) I was in jail in the 80's, and was acquitted. (but not falsely accused- careful distinction.)
But the idea of having a computer in your cell strikes me as a very inexpensive way for inmates to retain their humanity if somehow it could be controlled against stalkers, harrassment, witness intimidation, defendants communicating with each other, and the usual porn surfing. Nice job Paul. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by paul
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Dec 2004
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local:
you wrote: I've been locked up in the county jail on Main street for 95 straight days.
that's why i wondered if you were still in, and how you were able to access the internet.
what's the point of your hostility? |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Dec 2004
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No, no, no, hostility intended toward you whatsoever! I understand your confusion by my previous posting, and why you thought I might have still been in the jail. I honestly think inmates having internet access and communications with their attorneys and families through email to be a good idea, and was not mocking you at all. Your posting really did enlighten me to the idea, that's all. I apologize if you felt slighted, and did not mean that at all. Whoops. And thanks Paul for saying what I was hoping would get said, which is, there ought to be a little more energy here for this topic. If I am hostile at all, it's toward the fact inmates do not get to communicate with their attorneys enough for a proper defense. Your thinking that I was in the jail made me realize the computer could be a cost-efficient way to let inmates communicate while in jail with others on the outside. As you know, there is no greater domestic intrusion by government than a kidnapping from your home, a handcuffing, a caging and a seizing of all your stuff. People need to talk to people when they are in that kind of trouble. I really was taking the idea of an inmate typing on the computer from jail seriously. Sorry again for the confusion. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Dec 2004
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Xerox, jail phone deals approved
Published Online Dec 20, 2002
By MIKE MONSON
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - Champaign County Board members approved two controversial contracts Thursday night, one that provides jail phone services for inmates and is a big money maker for county government and a second with Xerox to provide digital copiers and support services for county government.
Board members also approved naming former county board member Mike Frerichs, a Gifford Democrat, as the new county auditor, replacing 10-year incumbent Gerrie Parr, who is retiring. Union leader Louie Smith, a Rantoul Democrat, was appointed to replace Frerichs on the county board for the next two years.
The inmate phone service contract was awarded, in a 19-7 vote, to Evercom of Irving, Texas. Under the two-year agreement, Evercom will provide the county with a $10,000 signing bonus and $168,000 in guaranteed income ($14,000 per month) or 48.5 percent of the income from inmate collect calls, whichever is greater.
County officials estimate the county will collect an average of $200,000 annually from the contract. County officials had sought higher guaranteed income from Evercom, but were unable to get all they were asking for.
Inmates who use the phone service place a collect call, which the person receiving the calls can accept or reject. The fee is high, an average of $3.61 for a three-minute local call, and about $8 for a 15-minute call.
Board Democrats, who control the board with a 16-11 majority, were clearly uncomfortable with the contract, though members noted the county badly needs the income.
"This is a very difficult vote," said Jan Anderson, D-Champaign, who voted against the contract. "It just seems the cost to the families is prohibitive. It's not the inmates being punished, it's the families."
Jennifer Putman, D-Urbana, decried that the county has become part of "the prison industry" business. She voted against the contract.
"If Ameritech or Evercom can make a killing, they'll share half of it with us," she said. "It makes me want to go home and take a shower. It just doesn't feel right."
Putman did compliment new Sheriff Dan Walsh, a Republican, for working with Evercom to ensure that a message will be played at the beginning of each call informing the recipient of the cost of the call and giving them an option to refuse the call. The current inmate telephone contract doesn't include that warning. The new contract will take effect Feb. 1.
Lorraine Cowart, D-Champaign, said she accepts a number of collect inmate calls so she can inform constituents that a family member is in the county jail. "I can't support this," she said. "Some of the poorest people are the ones suffering."
Also Thursday, the board voted to accept a proposal from Xerox Corp. for the lease of digital copiers and support services for the next two years. The contract is expected to cost the county $205,000 annually, assuming the county produces 6 million copies each year.
The contract was approved in a 17-9 vote, with three Democrats and six Republicans in opposition.
But before that vote, a motion narrowly failed, in a 13-13 vote, to send the contract back to committee and to instruct the administration to seek new proposals for copiers.
Board Republicans said they had problems with the county's request for proposals process, under which the county interviewed firms making proposals, rated them and then began negotiating with the highest-ranked firm.
Board member Scott Tapley, R-Champaign, said he didn't blame another vendor, Watts Copy Systems of Springfield, for complaining and going public after they had provided a price quote, 3.45 cents per copy, that was nearly half Xerox's initial price of 7.6 cents per copy. Xerox later lowered its price to 3.95 cents per copy during negotiations.
"I'm thankful they (Watts) piped up," said Tapley. "They've driven the cost down dramatically since they piped up six weeks ago."
Watts' original price quote is still lower than Xerox's. The Xerox contract will cost the county an estimated $205,000 annually, compared with $177,500 annually for the Watts proposal. That would have been a two-year savings of $55,000 with Watts Copy Systems, a Sharp dealer.
And Sean Watts, vice president of Watts Copy Systems, told board members during public participation that his firm was prepared to negotiate an even lower price had it been selected.
But board member Steve Beckett, D-rural Urbana, said that while the request for proposals process could use updating, it was the process used and firms that aren't picked shouldn't go public.
If losing firms complained publicly and to the media each time, "Can you imagine the chaos?" Beckett asked. "Who would want to do business with the county when I'm the No. 1 firm and the No. 2 and 3 firms are going to go public ... and destroy public confidence?"
County Clerk Mark Shelden spoke during public participation, saying he heard a board member say on the radio that county employees wanted Xerox. Shelden said his office had asked Xerox to service its main copier about a dozen times during 2002 and that the quality of service wasn't good.
"Right before the last election, Xerox was in our office, I think, 10 straight days working on our copier," he said. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Dec 2004
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In a casual conversation with a reporter from WDWS, newly elected State's Attorney, Julia Reitz let it be known that she uncovered over 300 police reports of crimes that had never been charged or dismissed by the old State's Attorney, John Piland. The cases ranged from sexual assault felonies to misdemeanors and some go all the way back to 2002. Police had filed cases and Piland simply ignored them. So if we thought the overcrowding was bad before, it was actually a lot worse. It would be interesting if there were a pattern to what failed to move the erstwhile Piland, reputed to charge at the drop of a hat for the stepping on a sidewalk crack. What kind of crimes and what kind of defendants would be ignored by Piland? And this man thought he had the support from law enforcement? |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Rochelle Griggs
griggsfamily (nospam) aol.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
04 Jan 2005
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I was disturbed when I read the article from Mary Schenk that said that my son Terrell Layfield was sentenced by Judge Heidi Ladd because he was apparently "living like a bum" for several years. Terrell was a resident of Chicago, not Champain with a wife and three children. Terrell's wife had special visits with him while he was incarcerated. Before information is printed by any news reporter, they should make sure that they have all the facts. The judge in my opinion had no right to hand down a decision due to someone "living like a bum." In my opinion suicides are not only the fault of the jail system, but also the justice system. We've received a lot of information centering around events leading up to his death. Before anymore is written about my son I would like it to be fact, not what someone assumed. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Twymenia Layfield
tthurmond (nospam) nuwbc.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jan 2005
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Let me start off by saying Terrell Layfield was a father,husband, friend and son. He was not ill and nor was he mentally ill nor a killer. Now people can say what they want about him cause they feel he was living like a bum, but that jail need to change. I guess the statment is true (champagin will hang you if you go to jail down there). This is the 3rd time in 6 month THIS HAS HAPPEN. Tell me where is the problem and who is ill. l lost my husband, my children lost there father and my mother lost her son due to someone else illness. The jail down there need to be clean up and out, And should always remember thing like this and do not let it die down cause people down there is letting it happen. Here another family with a father,husband or son. Now after the first hanging everything should have change.
but, it take 3 people to be kill for a officer to check every 15 to 20 min. After the first death people should have change. People dont care because it is not there love one and that's not right. These reoports need to get everything before they print something about Terrell. Not from some one that dont know nothing, but how to miss up a person life,because they had a bad day. The time I was down the and I would see how the jail just needed a change I drove 2 hours to visit him and they made me turn around because they had there fifty people this happen a couple of time,I was not late and the officer told me I could not visit. Now thats wrong.When you have to take off work and the inmate is waiting on a visit. Also my thing is what are they hanging from and if it happen one time then again that mean someone illness want it to happen again. I dont think the inmates are the ill ones. It is some one more sicker then they are. What did they change to pervent this from happen again to me it seen nothing! Now someone need to investgate the officers in Champaign-Urbana jail. So can you please stop saying and writing Terrell Layfield hung himself with a bedsheet when you dont know what really happen! Thank you.
Mrs. Layfield |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Twymenia Layfield
tthurmond (nospam) nwbc.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jan 2005
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This is my correct email
tthurmond (at) nwbc.edu if you need to reach me. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Sandra Ahten
spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
06 Jan 2005
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My apologies. I am the reporter on this story. Sandra Ahten. The opening line to this story should have read according to official reports: Terrell Layfield killed himself at the Champaign County jail on Saturday, December 4th. I should not have assumed that official reports are correct...as the investigations DO NOT HAVE the eyes of the public, or any outside agency looking at them. My apologies to the family. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Twymenia Layfield
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Jan 2005
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What do you mean a outside agency?
I hope you are nothing talking about someone that is going to tell them that they are wrong and to get rid of some of there WRONG DOING officers. If so I know that there are people over them and they know they need help. Also, know that something is going on in that jail. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Sandra Ahten
spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
06 Jan 2005
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My apologies. I am the reporter on this story. Sandra Ahten. The opening line to this story should have read according to official reports: Terrell Layfield killed himself at the Champaign County jail on Saturday, December 4th. I should not have assumed that official reports are correct...as the investigations DO NOT HAVE the eyes of the public, or any outside agency looking at them. My apologies to the family. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by DARLENE
MOMPET (nospam) BELLSOUTH.NET (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
05 Nov 2005
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I HAVE TWO SONS IN CHAMPAGIN IL AND THEY HAVE HAD NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS WITH THE COPS ALLTHE TIME, MY BABY SON ISIN JAIL NOW AND THEY ARE LOOKING FOR MY OLDER SON NOW, IHAVE ASK THIEM FOR MED. HELP FOR MY SON. BUT ALL THEY SEE IS PUTING ALL BLACK MEN IN JAIL SO THE STATE CAN GET PAID , FOR EVERY INMATE THEY HAVE IN JAIL THEY GET ABOUT TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR , AND THEY JJUST DONT CARE. PLEASE IF SOME ONE GET THIS MESSAGE PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL ASAP I HAVE TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT THIS I CAN NOT SLEEP AT NIGHT , IN AUG. THEY SET MY SON UP WITH A ROCK NOW HE IS BACK IN JAIL, MY PHONE# id 601-833-0599 please call me i have to talk to someone soon please help me. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by SAD FOR BLACK MEN AND POOR WHITE MEN.
GODSCHILD.COM (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
30 Nov 2005
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WELL IF OUR POLICE MISCONDUCT DON'T STOP THEY WILL HAVE ALL THE BLACK YOUNG MEN LOCKED AWAY THAT IS THERE PLAIN, WE INVEST THE POLICE WITH CERTAIN POWERS SO THEY MAY PROTECT US, BUT WHEN THEY ABUSE THOSE POWERS, WHEN THEY USE THEM AGAINST US, THEY BETRAY THAT, THE FOURTH AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION STATES NO PRESON SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIBERT, OF PROPERT WITH DUE PROCESS OF LAW" IT IS YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, WHEN A POLICE OFFICER VIOLATES YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS AS GUARANTED BY THE CONSTITUTION OF LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES HE MAY BE LILABLE AND REQUIED TO PAY YOU DAMAGES, BUT THEY ARE SO EVIL IT WILL BE HARD TO BEAT THEM, IT IS GOING TO TAKE THE LORD TO FIX THIS MESS. YOU HAVE ALL THESE GUYS LOCKED AWAY FROM THERE FAMILYS, NOW DON't take this the wrong way , trust me i do know some people should be locked away, because they have done bad things to hurt other people, but there you have the bad cops need to be put away also, some of those cops heads are so messed up the should not have a gun, black man, if you don't wake up you all are going to die in jail, you need to open your eyes and you will see what is going on, they keep traping you all, you guys are not above the law, but the cops think they are thats why they violate you, think about it. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Monica
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Feb 2006
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My son is currently in the Champaign county jail for traffic warrants issued on the day when he had another court appearance for child support. At the time of his arrest he was in school, working two jobs and trying to support his daughter. Since he has been in Champaign he is constantly harrassed by police officers. His employer stated that two officers attempted ot arrest him at work and he had been with his manager all day. If his manager was not white my son probably would have been incarcerated for a trumped up charge. Paying the traffic fines obviously was not important. If it were then he would have been released in order to work to pay the fines. He is losing his apartment, has to drop all of his classes in school and will have to find new employment once released. No one wants to assist you or give you information when you call. The system needs to be examined closely in Champaign County. It is a tragedy that three young people have lost their lives in the Champaign county system. There needs to be a Federal investigation into this matter immediately. |
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Re: THREE JAIL SUICIDES IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY |
by Twymenia Layfield
tthurmond (nospam) nwbc.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
15 Feb 2006
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Dear Monica
how are you or maybe i should ask how is your son. I am the wife of Terrell Layfield one of the black male that lose his life in 2004. this have took a reall toll and my girls and my in-laws. My husband got 66 months in the joint about lie about his name. i think this town feel if they can get you one way they will get you other. for you son he should walk light on his toes down there. i know you are say he shouldn't have to, but if he want to get by down there. Or just come from down there. i hda a time i was down there and i got pull over because my husband had his hat on this head the wrong way did you know that the cops made us get out and lay down on the ground while the search the car. my husband started to yell at the officers say can my wife sit in the back seat of the car. but you know they was yelling shut up she can get up when i finish.I dont know what they are doing in that jail doing in that jail but Im asking your son to stay out of it. my husband was 25 and had a wife and 3 girl and i look at my youngest that is four now say i miss my daddy. and i havent been right since but only the lord knows what is best. so please unless you got time to deal with them bad cops in that city please,please please stay away. and i ask that you stay in pray and i will pray for you and your son. if you need some one to talk to 708 253 8556 |
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