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Updated: Mar 30, 2008 - 01:13:30 am CDT
Crowded in Corrections |
13 comment(s) Deputies face difficulties in a jail with more
inmates than beds
Story Photos
Inmates at the DeKalb County Jail socialize
inside their cell block Friday afternoon. This cell block is one
of eight designed for six to 10 people. When the blocks are full,
inmates must be placed in holding cells or other areas not
designed for habitation. KATE WEBER
Lt. Joyce Klein speaks to an inmate in a holding
cell Friday afternoon at the DeKalb County Jail in Sycamore. The
jail has four holding cells originally meant for short-term
placement of inmates, but they are often used to house both males
and females who are being difficult with their cellmates. KATE WEBER
|
By Benji Feldheim -
SYCAMORE - The visitors' room at the DeKalb County
Jail isn't meant to be a holding cell.
It's where loved ones come to see inmates and talk
over receivers while separated by a glass pane. The attorneys' room
isn't supposed to be used that way either. The small round table and
three chairs in the room are for lawyers to discuss cases with
clients.
But when the jail has more inmates than it does
beds, corrections deputies use the two rooms as holding
cells.
“These rooms don't have a bath or toilet or running
water,” said Lt. Joyce Klein, jail supervisor for the last 12 years.
“It shouldn't be used as a holding cell, but it is. As a result,
someone gets mad and starts banging. Where in a proper cell they'd
only damage their hand, they break the window here.”
That
happened Feb. 22. An inmate kicked and broke the glass doors of the
visitors' room. Within a week, another inmate broke the glass doors
of the attorneys' room.
Overcrowding at the 27-year-old facility at 150 N.
Main St. in Sycamore is a constant problem, Klein said during a jail
tour March 20.
Built in 1980, the roughly 16,000-square-foot
jail was designed to last 20 years. In the late 1980s, a state jail
inspector added 25 beds, bringing the total to 89.
In 2007,
the jail's average daily inmate population was 102, down one from
103 in 2006, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff's
Office.
Jails are designed to be at functional capacity when
80 percent full; that's considered the manageable level at which a
jail can provide treatment programs and services and properly
classify and house inmates, the sheriff's office
said.
Functional capacity at the DeKalb County Jail is 72
inmates. It has been running past functional capacity for the last
four years.
Issues amplified
Lack of space has
multiple consequences, Klein said.
“Other jails with the
space to do it will put all the newer people into one area,” Klein
said. “They observe them for five, seven or even 30 days to get an
idea of their behavior and better classify them. Here, we book them
and in 20 minutes we have to decide where is most
appropriate.”
Most appropriate often depends on what space is
available, Klein said. Officers will add inmates according to their
charges at first, keeping traffic offenders separate from violent
offenders, and younger inmates separate from older ones. Shuffling
of inmates once they are placed then depends on behavior, Klein
said.
Stress is felt by officers and inmates alike. The
immediate effect of an overcrowded facility is the need to transport
some inmates to other jails. It takes deputies about four hours to
prepare inmates for transfer, drive to the other facility, unload
the inmates and return to DeKalb County, Klein said.
Before
even getting into the transport van, personal items must be packed,
followed by searches for contraband, Klein said. A check is made out
for inmates to spend at the commissary - where they buy books and
toiletries - then inmates are placed in shackles.
Boone
County is one of the first places DeKalb County contacts when it
needs help housing inmates. Boone County built an addition to its
jail in 2002 to help with overflow from neighboring counties. It
charges a flat rate of $50 per day to house out-of-area inmates,
regardless of how many inmates are sent.
“Lately our local
county population has been up, which has hampered us from taking
some (inmates) from DeKalb, but it's not too much of an issue,”
Boone County jail supervisor Lt. John Hare said Monday. “I'm hoping
the space can last for at least five more years, but it depends on
the local population.”
On March 18, DeKalb County was
preparing for five inmates to be sent to Boone County - until
deputies were told Boone couldn't receive them. The Ogle County Jail
was able to take four inmates, but they could take only those
already sentenced.
DeKalb County has spent more than $720,000
since 2004 to house inmates elsewhere because of overcrowding,
according to the sheriff's office 2007 annual report.
“We try not to ship people with regular visitors,
or those who are completing the GED program,” Klein said. “Behavior
determines who goes. If they're on a serious charge and their date
is coming up, then we'll try to keep them here. We want to
facilitate them getting to trial and moving it along. But then who
do we send, if those aren't the problem inmates?”
Care for
inmates with mental issues is another problem amplified by the small
space, Klein said. Evaluations can take six weeks to three months,
though the inmates might later be institutionalized. During the
window between a person's incarceration and his or her release to a
mental health care facility, corrections deputies must care for the
inmate as best as possible, Klein said.
About a month ago, a
female inmate grabbed an officer by the throat and pulled her into a
holding cell, Klein said. The inmate was sent to the Elgin Mental
Health Clinic a week later, after having spent about a month in the
jail.
Voted down
DeKalb County votes have twice
denied referendums that would fund jail expansions. A 2005 effort
was short a few hundred votes, but another attempt in 2006 was off
by thousands, Klein said.
The earliest another jail
referendum might appear on a ballot is 2010. DeKalb County Board
member Richard Osborne, D-DeKalb, who chairs the law and justice
committee, said the biggest obstacle toward expansion is voters'
lack of willingness to believe the need.
“People understand
it, it just seems people aren't willing to pay for it and I don't
understand why,” Osborne said. “Issues such as the risks of a full
jail and costs to send people elsewhere are all out there. Everybody
involved put so much into it last time and saw the result get even
worse.”
A crowded jail also means staff can offer fewer
programs to keep inmates occupied and to encourage them to change
behaviors that cause recidivism, Klein said.
Inmates can join
GED classes that meet twice a week. Group counseling has been
offered for 20 years, Klein said, and for the past decade,
one-on-one counseling has coincided with Bible study, which is led
by Chaplain William Lee. Group Bible study and Alcoholics Anonymous
have been in the jail for more than 30 years, Klein said.
A
multipurpose room with a library, TVs and table-tennis equipment are
used for programs and for the state-mandated hour inmates are to be
outside the cell blocks. Work-release programs and reading courses
are also offered.
“Residents have asked and looked at other
counties and suggested more programs, but I can't even look at it
right now,” Klein said. “I don't have time and space or staff to do
it.”
In the midst of size constraints, technological advances
have been added in the jail to abate some of the stress on
corrections officers.
Since 1997, video arraignment has
allowed inmates to attend some court hearings without physically
moving to the county courthouse across State Street.
“Any
time inmates are going outside, there's a risk of escape,” Deputy
Pete Hove said.
The addition of the command center in 2005
now allows deputies to use touch screens to control remote doors and
monitor the entire jail through a system of video cameras with
audio.
Hove often mans the command center during the day
shift - described by Hove and Klein as the busiest because of the
number of people visiting inmates or helping with
programming.
Cramped quarters
An obvious
example of crowding at the jail is the small medical room. The
closet-size space is between the laundry room and the locker room,
where inmates' personal items are stored.
A few cabinets with
supplies, a scale and a sink make up the medical room. When patients
are seen by jail nurse Linda Johnson-LaRoche, laundry must wait, as
only a steel gate stands between the two rooms.
“I have to
ask (inmates doing laundry) to leave the area because it may be too
private of an exam,” Johnson-LaRoche said. “We've adapted well, but
it's not working any more. If someone is being released or brought
in, I might have to stop what we're doing so they can get to the
locker room.”
Deputies must also be on hand for medical
exams, both in the medical room and outside to watch the inmates
waiting to see the nurse.
Jerry Brooks has been incarcerated
since August and has seen the effects of overcrowding.
“Some
people aren't used to being around people as much, and then tempers
flare,” Brooks said. “Being in a little cell every day - that alone
could make somebody snap. The only thing you can do is realize
you're in jail and that's where you're going to be until time is
up.”
Keeping busy has helped Brooks get through his sentence,
he said.
“I haven't been incarcerated anywhere else, but from
what I know, this is a pretty good jail,” Brooks said. “You have to
take it for what it is.”
By the numbers
102:
The DeKalb County Jail's average daily inmate population in
2007.
89: Number of beds in the jail.
10:
Housing areas: eight cell blocks built for six to 10 inmates
each, and two dorm-style rooms for six to 13 inmates each. Dorm
rooms are given to inmates who have shown good behavior. Four
one-person holding cells are also used to house
inmates.
80-90: The percentage, on average, of the
jail's inmates who have been charged with violent, drug-related or
sex offenses, since 2000.
3,180: People booked into
the jail in 2007. The booking process involves taking photos and
fingerprints and recording personal information, such as a person's
medical and mental history. Processing takes 20 minutes to an hour
per person.
22: Number of full-time corrections
deputies assigned to the jail. Two are assigned to the courthouse
full time, while one works in both the courthouse and the jail. Four
sergeants and one lieutenant are assigned to the jail. Three to six
deputies are on staff during the jail's three shifts, along with one
sergeant per shift.