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| Ill. Counties Adjust Fees for Inmates |
| By Daily Herald |
| Published: 08/06/2003 |
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For the last five years, the two counties have provided cells to the other. It started with a person-by-person fee assessed daily, but three years ago the exchange - that brings adult inmates to McHenry and juvenile inmates to Kane - became more formalized with a contract. Kane agreed to pay McHenry $50 per person to house up to 80 adult inmates a day. Meanwhile, McHenry paid $90 per person to keep juvenile offenders. 'It's been a good deal for all of us,' said Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy. Since Kane is still waiting for a solution to its jail crowding problem, the original three-year arrangement needs to be extended and Kane likely will see a higher bill. Unlike at Kane's jail in Geneva, the McHenry County jail in Woodstock has more space than local offenders can fill. So to use much of the space, McHenry is paid by the federal government to house Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services prisoners. Under that arrangement, the immigration service does an annual audit to determine the cost of housing an inmate and adjusts the payment price accordingly. The most current figures set the cost at $74 dollars a day, $24 more than what Kane pays. So McCoy, McHenry County Board Chairman Michael Tryon and representatives of both sheriff's departments are working on a new deal. McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren has proposed a price of $67 per inmate for the next three years. Tryon says he believes that could be a fair price because McHenry County is not interested in making money housing Kane inmates. He also said the county owes Kane officials for the option of sending juvenile offenders to the Juvenile Justice Center in St. Charles. 'It's a win-win for taxpayers in both communities,' Tryon said. The juvenile rate Kane charges McHenry County, $90 per person, isn't expected to change. McCoy said a final arrangement should be reached in about two weeks. The situations in both counties make a long-term contract a logical solution. McHenry doesn't have a juvenile jail and isn't going to build one in the near future, Tryon said. McHenry paid Kane about $350,000 last year for the existing arrangement, said James Mueller, executive director of Kane County Court Services. Kane's 400-person capacity adult jail has been overcrowded for years. It sends up to 80 inmates a day to McHenry County at a cost of $1.5 million a year. Earlier this year, plans for a 200-bed addition to Kane's jail were scrapped and a consultant is expected to be hired next month to explore jail options. McCoy says all that means a bigger jail couldn't be ready for at least three years. That reality, he said, makes a new deal with McHenry a sensible move. |
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