Kane County to research new jail annex for weekend-only inmates

Does the Kane County jail need an addition?

Last week the Kane County Board rejected a plan to double room and board fees charged to weekends-only inmates. The thinking was that doubled rates still wouldn't cover the actual costs of incarceration. On Friday the board learned the underlying problem of costs might be in the way inmates are housed.

Jail Cmdr. Pat Keaty and Chief Judge F. Keith Brown told a county board committee that offering weekend-only confinement to some nonviolent offenders with jobs is an effective way to help keep the overall jail population low. The county continues to experience issues with not having enough beds for all inmates even though it built a new jail to help address that very problem. Brown said the court system would like to utilize the weekend-only option more, but sometimes there just isn't enough room at the jail.

Kane County charges $15 a day for a weekend-only inmate. Even doubling the rate wouldn't cover costs, so Keaty and Brown have a new plan.

Keaty, who runs the new jail, told the committee most other counties have a separate facility for weekend-only inmates. The facility is typically little more than a dorm unit without bars on doors and windows, nor prisoner uniforms. Offenders check in, serve two days, and released. That model may actually be cheaper for the county to run than putting the weekend inmates in with the full-time jail population, Keaty said.

The committee directed Keaty to research the costs of adding a low-cost annex to the jail specifically for weekend-only inmates. In the meantime, Brown pushed forward a new sliding scale for weekend inmate fees. The scale runs from $20 for those with the low incomes to $100 for those with incomes of at least $100,000 a year.

Keaty was supportive of the sliding scale format.

"We're looking to increase revenue, but we're not looking to crush the program," Keaty said. He suggested a fee that is too high would only result in inmates electing to become full-time inmates. "Then we don't get anybody, and we have an overcrowded jail."