Preckwinkle lays out timeline to end fed decree

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is committing to set a timeline to get out from under a federal Department of Justice decree on the county jail by 2013.

The county board on Tuesday affirmed a Preckwinkle proposal to “reach substantial compliance” by 2013 and thus attempt to end a U.S. Department of Justice order on overcrowding at the jail that replaced the infamous Duran decree, which cost the county millions of dollars in legal fees over more than three decades.

Sheriff Tom Dart negotiated that end to the Duran and Harrington decrees a year ago and set a timetable for possible compliance by the end of this year, so Preckwinkle’s resolution only affirms that while setting a firm later deadline.

Preckwinkle said the idea is to move nonviolent offenders from incarceration into behavior-modification and training programs they would attend during the day and then return home for the night.

The idea was welcomed by Dart, who for several years has been talking about the need to approach sentencing of certain offenders differently.

“We’re glad to work with a president’s office that appears to share in some of the same beliefs about the way addiction often feeds criminal activity,” said Steve Patterson, Dart’s spokesman. “After spending four years talking about the need to change the way we approach many of these cases, we’re glad to count the president’s office as an ally.”

Preckwinkle said the goal would be to significantly reduce the average daily population of 9,000 at Cook County Jail. That in turn would save money, as releasing those accused of minor drug, prostitution and shoplifting offenses to training while awaiting trial, even at an estimated cost of $100 a day, would reduce the spending on inmates, she said.

Preckwinkle added that social-service agencies have estimated that as many as two in five jail inmates are mentally ill, and while not all present no danger to themselves or others, many would benefit from better treatment in other sorts of institutions.

The county’s struggle for compliance on the Duran decree cost the government millions of dollars in lawyer fees over three decades.