Kane County may need to expand juvenile jail

A new state law may force Kane County to beef up its ability to host juveniles who run afoul of the legal system. The new space demands would force the county to find more money at a time when it's already struggling to make ends meet.

Starting Jan. 1, Illinois will treat 17-year-olds charged with a misdemeanor as juveniles. Illinois is currently among only a handful of states who treat 17-year-olds as adults in such instances. That single change may increase Kane County's juvenile caseload by 15 percent. Coupled with the possibility that Illinois may also soon treat 17-year-olds charged with a felony as juveniles and Kane County suddenly has a space problem at the juvenile justice center.

The legal changes may provide a helpful solution to capacity issues at the county's adult jail. The jail opened with more inmates than beds, but has since cut down the population by increasing the speed of the court system and releasing some nonviolent offenders while they await their day in court. But with the county just starting to pay off the debt of building the new adult jail, the cost of expanding the juvenile facility is ever more daunting.

That cost, the size of the potential expansion and what the operation of a larger juvenile facility would look like will all be part of a new study that will be conducted by the same team that studied the need for a larger adult jail. A draft of the findings is expected by Sept. 30, with a final report due on Dec. 11.

Chief Judge F. Keith Brown said the county must keep up with the increased demand for space. The county already spends more than $1 million a year to send the most difficult inmates out of the county.

"We do not want to get into a situation where we are exporting juvenile offenders someplace else," Brown said.

Key to the study will be public input and collaborating with DeKalb, Kendall and McHenry counties. Those three counties all use Kane County's facility for their juvenile offenders. Those areas would also likely see an uptick in the number of juveniles they'd have to send to Kane County. That will result in additional profit for the county in hosting those juvenile inmates. Kane County will reap about $340,000 this year alone from other counties using its facility.

No matter the increase, Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay is not worried about the other counties deciding to build their own juvenile detention facilities.

"It is not profitable for any of the other counties to open their own facilities," McConnaughay said. "They just don't generate the numbers (of juvenile offenders) to make that feasible."

The feasibility of Kane County meeting the space demands may come down to cost. The county is already struggling to find money to stay out of the red for a second consecutive year.

"This couldn't come at a worse time," said county board member Jerry Jones.