Ways to trim Kane Co. jail crowding told

A process is in place that will shrink the day-to-day population of the Kane County jail this year, addressing the single-largest factor that put the county budget in the red last year.

Law enforcement, jail and county court staff delivered that promise to county board members Thursday. The promise came while staff members were grilled about how it could be that a brand new facility hasn't been able to accommodate the amount of inmates waiting to fill its cells since it opened. The county reassigned an average of more than 150 inmates in jails in Kendall County and other communities in 2008. That came at a cost of about $60 per day per inmate, eventually plunging the jail budget more than $2 million over budget to close the year.

Staff members pointed to fluctuations in the jail population during the past eight years, culminating in the largest jail population the county had seen in recent history at almost exactly the same time the new jail opened. It's always impossible to predict exactly how much crime will be committed in any year, beyond the fact that more people in any area usually equals more crime overall.

That said, the projected inmate population the new jail would need to house have been fairly accurate. The types of inmates weren't really factored into those projections. There must be some open cells at all times no matter the overall need to address housing different criminals in appropriately different ways.

More violent criminals and discipline problems need to be segregated. Cells dedicated for females can't be converted into cells for male inmates, even though there are more female beds than are needed most days. Those are just some of the obstacles the jail faces, staff members said.

When the jail opened beyond full, staff members formed a committee to address how to increase the committee failed, however.

A new committee of jail, county and court systems leaders has come together in more recent months that has already put in place changes that are shrinking the day-to-day population of the new jail. They've been joined by a part-time employee examining the crimes of individual inmates to see who can be safely be released on bond or monitoring to make room in the jail for more violent criminals.