Kane County looking for a few bad women

The Kane County jail is looking to boost its income by soliciting more female inmates to stay in its unfilled women's wing.

The new jail already was over capacity when it opened last year. thanks to an overflow of male inmates that has the county paying other facilities to house some of its prisoners.

But the jail's 64-bed female wing averages about 19 vacancies on any given day.

Now, the county has come up with a better way to use those open beds while helping to solve its budget shortfall.

Jail officials are in negotiations with federal marshals to house up to 15 female inmates daily while they await trial in Chicago's federal court system.

In return, the county would receive about $88 per day, per inmate. That works out to about $1,320 a day in new revenue for the county on days when the projected maximum of 15 federal female inmates are housed.

Jail officials said they already have a contingency plan in place if for some reason there a large influx of local female inmates fills space being made available to federal detainees.

County leaders learned an additional piece of good news on the financial front Monday with the treasurer's office agreeing to a compromise on a special tax he refused to collect last month. Treasurer David J. Rickert told county board members he'd accept a $400 one-time fee to collect a Special Service Area tax set for 16 homeowners in unincorporated Elgin Township. The tax will fund a flood relief project in the homeowner's neighborhood.

Rickert's office traditionally collects such taxes, but isn't legally required to do so.

One of the more vocal critics of the county board's recent budget cut mandates and processes, Rickert refused to collect the taxes last month until the county found a way to compensate his department for the additional work.

The compromise of the one-time $400 fee removes Rickert's concern, at least for that particular issue.