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News :: Crime & Police |
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LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sandra Ahten
Email: spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Phone: 217-367-6345 |
29 Dec 2004
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A group of local citizens is joining together to encourage the Champaign County Sheriff and Champaign County Board to make adjustments to the local jail system on the heels of three suicides in the county jail in the last six months.
According to CU Citizens for Peace and Justice, two specific areas of present policy that must change, and may in turn reduce this troubling trend in suicide at the jail, are the extortionate rates charged inmates for phone calls to their families and the limited visitation oppportunities at the jail. Changes are needed in present policy so that those in the jail can maintain ties to their emotional support system in the community.
Questions have previously been raised by members of the county board about the justice of raising nearly $350,000 over two years for the budget from the families of some of the county's poorest residents by means of the county's lucrative jail phone contract with Evercom of Irving, Texas. The Champaign County Board is due to vote soon on renewing its jail phone service contract and can press for an improved visitation policy. |
The group, CU Citizens for Peace and Justice, is also insisting that an outside agency investigate the possibility of criminal responsibility for the deaths. Currently the investigations are being conducted by the Sheriff’s Department, with supplemental reports from the Urbana City Police, and technical assistance from the Illinois State Police. The Chicago Tribune reported in 2002 that there are eight or nine jail suicides per year in Illinois. If statistics bear out, Champaign will have been the site of 30% of these this year.
Although some of the inmates at the Champaign County Jail have been found guilty and are sentenced to time there, most have not been found guilty and are awaiting their court date. Due to an urgently clogged court system, court dates are routinely six to eight months from the time of arrests. Those who have the funds usually have family post bond. Hence it is those who cannot afford bond who more often are held in the jail.
CU Citizens for Peace and Justice agrees with Sheriff Walsh who has stated that communication between inmates and their families should increase. The advocacy group contends that phone practices and visitation policies in particular need to change.
PHONE EXTORTION
In December 2002 Champaign County Board approved a contract with Evercom of Irving, Texas to provide inmate phone services. Under this agreement, in order to make even local calls, inmates are required to call collect at rates far exceeding any standard telephone rates. In return for signing this agreement, Champaign County received a $10,000 “signing bonus” and a promise of 48.5 % of revenue or $14,000 guaranteed per month, in kickback from these calls. The county has received $14,000 per month every month except one – when the percentage of revenue was higher and the County received $15,308.00. In two years the County has profited $347,308.
Inmates who use the phone service place a collect call, which the person receiving the call can accept or reject. An example of typical charges for a local collect call using the Evercom service is $6.14 for a 15-minute phone call. For comparison, a “local long distance” call of 15 minutes made from Urbana to Tuscola would cost $4.51 at most. As another comparison, a thirty-minute collect call from an Illinois Department of Correction Penitentiary (more than 200 miles away) to Urbana costs $10. In addition, calls are unlimited in the number that can be placed, but are limited to 15 minutes in duration. If the inmate needs to talk longer he/she has to call back and again pay the initial “connect” charge. Ideally, for local calls from the County Jail, collect services should not have to be used at all, and the call would cost just a few cents.
This contract with Evercom is set to expire on Feburary 1, 2005. Denny Inman of the Champaign County Administrator’s office has asked that the contract be bi-laterally extended to March 10. This matter is set to be discussed at the following Champaign County Board Meetings at 7 pm at the Brookens Administration Building, 1776 W. Washington Urbana IL:
Jan 3 (Monday), Justice and Social Services Committee
Jan 5 (Wednesday), Policy Procedures and Appointments (discussion of phone contract, with Evercom representative requested to be present)
Jan 20 (Thursday), Full Board
VISITATION PRACTICES
In addition to the detrimental phone practices, restrictions on visitation also impede contact between inmates and their families.
In state and federal prisons, visitors can usually have a four-hour visit. It is logical that in county jail the need for communication with family is even greater. The county jail is where people are usually held immediately after their arrest. Because of this there is a crisis nature to their circumstances – with legal as well as family decisions to be made.
At the Champaign County jail visitors routinely have to wait in line up to three hours for a twenty-minute visit. Family members or friends with jobs or other obligations often cannot breech this hurdle. The reason for the three-hour wait in line is that there is a maximum number of total visitors that the jail allows on any given visiting day. Currently that number is fifty. So, even if visiting hours are from 12 - 3pm, if fifty visitors have been processed, then the visiting period is over. A woman and her children who had driven down from Chicago was recently denied a visit with her husband at the downtown jail before visiting hours were scheduled to be over. No one was waiting – and yet the officer turned the woman away because fifty people had been there before her.
Visiting hours are limited to twice weekly. Each inmate can have a maximum of twenty minutes of visiting during this time, for a total of forty minutes per week. If there is more than one visitor, the twenty-minute time is split up. People routinely arrive three hours before visiting hours start so they can be assured a visit with their incarcerated family member or friend. In addition, the visitors often have to wait outside, they have to form and monitor their own line, and someone among them has to organize a sign-up sheet so they know who got their first. Although things usually go smoothly, occasionally someone leaves to get something to eat, care for a child, or someone jumps ahead in line and it causes disruptions. If there are any disruptions, the visitors are threatened that visitation will be cancelled. Cancellations, though not routine, do happen. In fact it is the opinion of many who wait in line at the county jail that the whole visiting scenario seems to be designed to discourage visits, which are of course vital to the mental health of inmates.
FUTURE
Two years ago seven members of the Champaign County Board voted against contracting with Evercom for telephone services. CU Citizens for Peace and Justice believes that with the rash of suicides at the jail and new County Board members taking their seats that the current Board will not agree to this phone extortion on the backs of the families of prisoners. A petition to voice your opposition to renewing the current contract can be viewed and signed at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cucfpj/petition.html
GET INVOLVED
To be informed about action that you can take, including:
Getting petitions signed, enlisting endorsements from organizations you are involved in or have contact with (including churches, businesses, social and political groups), and making telephone calls to members of the County Board, Please contact Sandra Ahten at 217-367-6345 or spiritofsandra (at) hotmail.com
Please forward this information with the link for petition signing to all possible allies. |
See also:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cucfpj/petition.html
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This work is in the public domain. |
Comments
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Re: LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 Dec 2004
|
A four hour visit sounds great but how does this work for 300 plus inmates?
What kind of schedule does the group envision? Would there be visiting everyday at the jail in order to accomodate all the prisoners wanting to have their turn at a four hour visit? |
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Re: LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
by John Hilty
jhilty (nospam) shout.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
29 Dec 2004
|
The Champaign County Mental Health Board (CCMHB) provides funding to Provena Behavioral Health for psychiatric evaluations of jailhouse inmates. It is my understanding (from attending a CCMHB meeting) that around 100 psychatric evaluations are conducted each month.
It makes me wonder if the inmates committing suicide were ever subjected to a mental health evaluation and, if so, what the results were? Because this is confidential medical information, it probably isn't available to members of the public.
I assume that if someone enters the jail with a serious mental health problem, that they are allowed to see someone for their medical condition -- such as a caseworker or counselor. And I assume that if an inmate was taking psychiatric medication prior to his or her incarceration, that this medication is allowed to continue without disruption within the jail. Otherwise, the psychiatric condition is likely to worsen significantly, and the risk of suicide and other adverse reactions will increase proportionately.
However, I don't really know the answers to some of these questions because I have never been admitted as an inmate to a jail, and therefore lack familiarity with the policies and procedures that are typically applied in these types of cases. |
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Re: LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
by Sandra Ahten
spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
29 Dec 2004
|
I did not give the four hour example as a model that should be duplicated, but as an example of recognizing the needs of inmates and their families. The group is hoping that an outside agency such the National Center for Insitutional Alternatives, http://www.ncianet.org/
who have a specialist regarding jail suicides wil be engaged by the county to do an analysis and make recommendations.
(I recommended this agency to the Sheriff and I followed up today and found out that they have been in contact!)
But what could be wrong with having visiting hours from 9am - 8pm daily with a reasonable maximum time allowed such as 1 or 1.5 hours? 20 minutes is just too short considering the drive time and wait time that many visitors make.
Currently the visits aren't monitored because they are behind glass. So there would be no extra staff required. There has to be an officer available to get the inmate and bring them from the cell -- but they have to do that on the visiting times now. They could do that on the 1/2 hour.
I think it would work. I also think it might be less stressful for the guards than the present process, which if you've ever been for a visit, you know none of them enjoy.
Please sign the petition regarding the phone calls from the link above. This is important.
http://www.ncianet.org/ |
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Re: LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
by NewInTown
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
02 Jan 2005
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I am staying with a friend until I find my own place. I just got into town a week and a half ago. Do I have to be a resident to sign? What will happen to the petition? Will there be a meeting of all people who have signed? |
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Re: LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
by Sandra
spiritofsandra_hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jan 2005
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If you live here now you are a resident, (even if you are staying with a freind.) You do not have to be a registered voter to sign. The group CU Citizens for Peace and Justice is meeting this Saturday at the Douglas Branch library at 1:30. We will discuss ways to get more signatures. We will be presenting signatures to the County Board on Jan 20. |
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Re: LOCAL GROUP ADVOCATES FOR CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO JAIL SUICIDES |
by Local Yocal
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Jan 2005
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County's financial picture improving
Published Online Aug 31, 2004
By MIKE MONSON
News-Gazette Staff Writer
URBANA - Champaign County government might see nearly a $1 million surplus in its general corporate fund this year - ending a two-year string of budget deficits.
Champaign County Administrator Debra Busey said her most optimistic projections show the county would wind up with a surplus of $937,000 this year in the general corporate fund, the county's main account that pays for operating most county offices.
The projection assumes that the county underspends it general corporate budget by 2 percent. The county typically does that, with underspending reaching 3 percent last year.
"It does look pretty good right now," Busey said. "When it looks that good, it makes me nervous. I don't know that we've taken into consideration all the possible increases in expenditures that could occur the rest of this fiscal year.
"There are always issues that can come up in the last quarter of the year with the criminal justice system, typically in the sheriff's office or circuit court, where we have to have a budget amendment."
Busey said a surplus this year would be welcome, because it would come after two straight years of budget deficits. The general corporate fund experienced a deficit in fiscal 2002 in excess of $1 million, while last year the shortfall was a more modest $111,000.
Busey said the county is benefiting from solid sales tax growth, up about 4 percent year-to-date for the countywide quarter-cent sales tax and up 11.7 percent for the 1 percent sales tax that goes to the county for purchases made in unincorporated areas of the county.
Sales tax growth for the quarter-cent sales tax jumped 6.2 percent in May, the most recent month for which figures are available, Busey said.
The county also has seen record fee income increases resulting from real estate transactions and recording fees, she said, though the rate of increase slowed somewhat in the past month.
The county started this fiscal year, which began Dec. 1, with a fund balance of $2.8 million.
That balance represented 10.6 percent of the projected expenditures in the general corporate fund of $26.8 million. If the surplus projection holds true for this fiscal year, the fund balance would increase to $3.7 million by Nov. 30, the end of the fiscal year. That figure represents 14.3 percent of general corporate spending.
For the county, a minimum fund balance of 12.5 percent of general corporate fund spending is necessary, or else the county is forced to turn to internal or external borrowing to meet its payroll at times, Busey said. That's because the county relies heavily on property tax income, which isn't disbursed until after installment payments are made by property owners in June and September.
"The minimum we need is 12.5 percent," Busey said. "If we're below that, we want to find ways to get us there. Ultimately, our fund balance goal is 25 percent, but I'm not sure we'll ever get there."
Barbara Wysocki, chairwoman of the Champaign County Board's Finance Committee, said she believes the growth in tax revenue could be a sign that the county is finally headed toward economic recovery. The local growth is also helpful because income from the state continues to be sluggish, she said.
"Champaign-Urbana has a diverse economy that that continues to weather some pretty tough times," Wysocki said. |
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