Sheriff Kramer: I removed federal inmates for officers' safety

Kane County officials are facing the loss of about $1.4 million after a decision by the sheriff to boot federal inmates out of the county jail for corrections officers' safety.

U.S. Marshals pulled 43 federal detainees out of the jail last week. The county's 2015 budget is partially based on $2.4 million of projected income from hosting the inmates this year, and that projection is based on the five-year history of the relationship between the marshals and the county.

For housing prisoners awaiting trial, the county is paid $88 per day, per inmate. The average actual cost to host an inmate is about $66 per day.

That profitable difference drives the county to send a daily average of 60 of its own inmates to other jails to make more room for the federal detainees. Money from the deal recently funded a new shooting range for the sheriff's office.

But there's a new sheriff in town. Don Kramer said he spent his first month in office evaluating the program and deemed it unsafe.

"It's a lot of revenue, but we don't have the capacity at the jail," Kramer told the county board's judicial and public safety committee Thursday.

"It's a big safety issue," he said. "There's some liability issues. We sometimes mandate people to work double shifts. That staff is burned out. We have people that don't want to stay here."

The statement hinted at a long-standing problem. The correctional officers union has gone without a contract for five years and has a slew of grievances related to work hours, staffing and conditions. Those grievances began to pile up roughly the same time the jail began housing the federal inmates.

Kramer recently said getting a new union contract in place is one of his key goals this year.

He hinted that the union contract played heavily in his decision by telling the board committee Thursday he won't even think about adding federal prisoners back into the jail unless or until he gets his staffing up by about 10 people. That's roughly the total number of officers who are either on the shelf or assigned less-demanding tasks because of on-the-job injuries or Family Medical Leave Act claims, Kramer said.

"My obligation is not to bring in revenue into the county," Kramer said. "There's a big cost to do that. My first priority has to be to have a safe environment for my 120 correctional officers."

But there's no guarantee the marshals will bring more of their detainees back to the jail even when those 10 officers are back on full duty. And the county will lose money and fall further off budget every day the jail doesn't contain the expected number of federal detainees.

Committee members said they respect Kramer's authority to run the jail and his duty to ensure the safety of his staff. But they reminded him he also has a fiduciary responsibility to local taxpayers.

Joe Onzick, the county's finance director, put a slide on a big screen for Kramer showing $1.4 million in lost revenue equals a 4.2 percent property tax increase. And if all the federal inmates left, that would equal a $2.4 million loss, or a 7.6 percent property tax increase.

"The answer is very simple," Onzick said. "We must find a way to either replace (the money), or, if we can't replace it, we will need to cut $1.4 million in expenditures as soon as possible. We do not have any other alternative."

Kramer had no immediate plans to find new revenue or how to cut $1.4 million out of his budget. The county board's finance committee will consider scenarios later this month.