The so-called swine flu outbreak has affected operations at a number of correctional agencies in the United States
- Cook County IL has limited visitors to immediate family members and attorneys. There are currently no cases of the swine flu at the jail.
- The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections is canceling offender visitation starting Friday and continuing for up to two weeks, according to a release from the agency. There will be no visitation at any of the state’s 13 correctional facilities.
- Ventura County CA has also canceled visits. Sheriff Bob Brooks announced Friday that all public visits to inmates are suspended until May 15.
- In Henderson County, KY, the jail is continuing visits but with changes. Colonel Freddie Rowland of the Henderson County Detention Center said, ”We are limiting the contact between the visitor and the inmate. We’re going to allow a quick hug, but we’re not going to allow them to sit as close as they normally do.”
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The local press has likened the dispute between Cook County Jail and the Illinois DOC over fees to an episode of “Judge Judy“.
On Jan. 21, the Cook County Board of Commissioners has directed the county state’s attorney’s office to explore suing the state over several million dollars’ worth of back fees for housing inmates who violate the terms of their parole. Now, the Illinois Department of Corrections has fired back. The department called the allegations simply false, and said Cook County never took the proper steps to collect the fees. The county disputes that contention. “The sheriff’s office has annually requested [the money] and the [department] has basically ignored it,” said Commissioner Pete Silvestri (R-Chicago), “so what are the county’s options?”
At issue is three years’ worth of reimbursements that Cook County says it’s owed for holding prisoners on the state’s behalf. Illinois law requires that the county detain prisoners for state parole violations—but it also says that the state must cover half of the cost. The Cook County Jail handles about 1,600 such prisoners every day, according to the board’s Jan. 21 resolution. Its daily population is about 9,800. Cook County officials say they’ve held up their end of the bargain—but the state has not. But the Department of Corrections asserted that Cook County hadn’t followed the proper protocol to ensure payment
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Cook County IL Sheriff Thomas Dart is pushing ahead with a plan to transform Bond Court in an effort to better screen pretrial detainees and reduce chronic overcrowding at County Jail.
Daniel Gallagher, an attorney representing Dart, told a federal judge Friday an improved Bond Court would give judges more information to better determine whether a non-violent pretrial detainee should be held in custody or released on electronic monitoring. County officials estimate it will cost about $900,000 to move the Bond Court from the Criminal Courts Building at 26th Street and California Avenue to an unused annex at the jail. The new Bond Court would have a courtroom, larger holding facilities and conference rooms and could be completed by next September, Gallagher said …
Inmate advocates say one reason for the jail overcrowding is that Bond Court judges, lacking sufficient information on new detainees, often err on the side of caution and order them held in custody. The vast majority of individuals arrested in Chicago for felony crimes appear in either Central Bond Court during the workweek or Weekend Bond Court to have a judge set bail. On any given day, more than 100 defendants may be on the court call, and for years each had to appear in person before a judge. But since January 1999, hearings have been held via closed-circuit television for security and efficiency. But critics complain the process eroded defendants’ rights.
More on this at the Chicago Tribune.
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Continued overcrowding and violence at Cook County Jail are the result of systemic problems caused by many agencies, not just the sheriff’s office, according to a report filed Thursday by a federal court-appointed monitor.
”The county health service, the county facilities management, the County Board and Cook County court proceedings contribute to understaffing and overcrowding and, ultimately, to violence,” said Malcolm Young, executive director of the John Howard Association. The 150-page report found inmates still slept on the floor. But the average “overflow population” at the facility, which has about 9,600 beds, decreased this year to fewer than 200 from more than 400 in 2007, it added.
The most frequent inmate complaints related to jail health services, the report states. Those services, which have seen substantial budget cuts under Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, were a primary focus of the U.S. attorney’s report. Sean Howard, a spokesman for Stroger, said Young’s “statement is without merit . . . The president isn’t passing the buck, he’s meeting the issue head on.”
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- Luzerne County PA joins PA SAVIN, the State’s victim notification system
- The Orleans Parish LA Jail is being investigated by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice; Sheriff calls it “a review”.
- ADP in Chester County PA falls below 900 for first time since 2005.
- Strip searches at Cook County Men’s Jail ruled unconstitutional; suits may total more than $10 million
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- State law in Wisconsin expands definition of tampering with GPS monitoring devices to include signal jamming.
- Santa Barbara County CA to get State funding for new jail and re-entry center.
- Cook County IL jail opens Bright Space, where incarcerated mothers can visit with their young children in a “non-jail” setting.
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A court-appointed monitor has ripped Sheriff Tom Dart’s plan to ease crowding at the Cook County Jail, saying it could increase the risk of suicide among mentally ill inmates.
Officials at the John Howard Association say many of the jail’s doctors and psychologists are extremely concerned about the plan, which would move some inmates with serious medical and psychiatric problems out of a dorm-style setting and into jail cells. “They say many of these patients, because of their conditions, shouldn’t be out of sight,” Charles Fasano, director of the association’s Prison and Jails Program, said in an interview. Fasano said more than a half-dozen health-care personnel contacted him after learning of the sheriff’s plan…
In a March 25 letter to Dart … John Howard officials also questioned whether the sheriff’s plan to relocate inmates would provide enough privacy for female inmates when they shower or use the bathroom. They also criticized Dart’s move to have some inmates share bunks on a voluntary basis.
Attorneys for the Cook County Sheriff disagreed with the letter, “arguing that it didn’t take into account recent changes to the sheriff’s plan.”
Under the plan filed March 31, jail officials would move about 450 inmates from the dorm-style “residential treatment unit” to cells that will be part of a medical wing. They would then move female inmate into the residential treatment unit, freeing up space elsewhere. The plan also calls for increased videotaping of inmates and more frequent checks on inmates with health problems … Lawyers for the inmates are pushing for Dart to put more inmates awaiting trial on electronic monitoring, which they see as a better long-term solution than moving inmates to different parts of the facility.
The full article from the Chicago Tribune has more detail.
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