New McHenry Co. jail rules hinder group aiding immigrants

For more than a decade, David Warren and his colleagues with the Secular Franciscan Order have given immigration detainees at the McHenry County jail $10 apiece to spend on candy, snacks, toothpaste and any other items they wish from the facility's commissary.

It's a service, the Crystal Lake man says, that shows compassion to people often frightened and confused while locked up in a foreign land seeking asylum and the freedoms they do not have in their native countries.

But it's also a service Warren and the lay Catholic order may not be providing much longer.

A new set of jail regulations controlling how detainees receive funds in their commissary accounts, Warren said, places undue time and financial burdens on his organization, putting him on the brink of pulling the plug on the commissary donations.

The change, made official Nov. 1, bars the jail from accepting lump sum payments from the Secular Franciscan Order, doing away with Warren's routine of collecting $10 for each new detainee and then writing the jail one check to cover them all.

Instead, under the new policy, the order must either use one of two computerized methods for making $10 deposits for each individual - with a $5 fee per transaction tacked on - or mail in a separate $10 money order for each detainee.

"It's just onerous and unnecessary," said Warren, who also ministers and provides counseling to the immigration detainees. "It would be impossible for me to do it this way."

Deputy Corrections Chief Patrick Firman said the change was necessary for the jail to abide by state regulations governing how it handles inmates' money.

The jail handles commissary accounts for hundreds of inmates both the county's and federal immigration detainees held under a deal between the county and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As of late last week, the jail had 204 immigration detainees from around the world within its walls, Firman said.

Oftentimes under the previous arrangement with Warren, he said, detainees would be out of the facility by the time the donation arrived, leaving the jail with hundreds of unaccounted for dollars.

"Our main concern is accounting for the funds," he said. "We certainly don't object to what they want to do, but we have to figure out some way to have accountability."

Firman noted that the new rules for immigration detainees are no different from those imposed on others being held in the jail.

But with about 1,500 detainees receiving a donation each year, Warren said, the latter option would cost the order about $2,100 - $1 per money order, plus a 44-cent stamp for each mailing. Paying the $5 fee per transaction is not an option either.

It would not, he said, be an acceptable way to use funds received from churchgoers tithings.

"It would be unethical to take money from the collection boxes and give it to the postal service," he said.

Firman said he reached out to Warren late last week and hopes the two can meet soon to forge an arrangement that serves both their needs.

"We understand where he's coming from," he said. "I'm sure once we sit down with Mr. Warren, we'll be able to work something out. We don't want to prevent them from doing what they're doing."