Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
Asian Carp: 'Nice Try, Suckers'
Friday Afternoon Diversion: Earth With Rings
Here's the scenario: Cook County's in the hole by about $500 million. Infamous Board President Todd Stroger wants to slash jobs without raising taxes, which has many people up in arms, including newly elected Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Stroger wants to dispose of some of Dart's courtroom staff and police force. What's a rookie sheriff of the most populated county in Illinois to do?
Taking a cue from downstate Kankakee County, Dart is mulling over the possibility of charging inmates in Cook County Jail for merely being incarcerated. As Dart sees it, detainees have roughly $5 million just sitting around in accounts every year. Incoming convicts would be charged a one-time "booking fee" when they start their sentences, an approximate charge of $10 or $15 a pop. A co-pay could also be arranged for when inmates need to see a doctor or dentist. Those under house arrest could be shaken down as well, perhaps just for the privilege of not being stuck in jail. Lastly, prisoners who violate rules could be charged fines, presumably commensurate with the severity of the violation.
With 10,000+ inmates a day coming into Cook County Jail at 31st and California, the extra revenue could be a real boon for the cash-strapped county. However, instead of flooding the general fund with all this moolah, Dart wants to hoard most of the money exclusively for law enforcement. Bully for him, but that sounds like a big "screw you" move to the rest of the county. Detractors of the plan also point out that criminals aren't known for having a lot of cash to begin with; hence their line of work. What would be done with a penniless prisoner? Would they be forced to stay in jail that much longer for not having money to cough up?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
sounds like a great idea, until you realize that, yeah, if criminals had plenty of money, they likely wouldn't be criminals in the first place [with the exception of conrad black]. i do, however, think dart's better idea is to dismantle the forest preserve police and put the forest preserves under the jurisdiction of the sheriff's police, which they kind of are anyway now, this would just make it official and save the county a few million and put a bunch of political hacks out of wor... oh wait, that won't happen.
The reason Dart wants the money to stay within law enforcement is that he is wary of the Stroger Clan having a blank check to hire more unqualified friends and family while continuing to ignore the problems within the bureau of health. If these revenue plans are successful the proceeds would go to the general fund; this is a just a way of Dart taking a shot at Stroger.
In other states they charge you 60 dollars a day for everday you are in jail.
Wow, I'm think this vioilates the bill of rights in terms of being cruel and unusual punishment. I'm disturbed by the thought it's okay to do anything to a person once they are convicted of a crime.
It's also the opposite of any rational form of law enforcement. It destroys rehabilitiation as it forces the incarcerated into debt, which may drive them right back to crime to pay it off.
And it also creates a monetary incentive for locking up prisoners for as long as possible.
You just know that a few years after enacting this policy there will be a major scandals about prisoners being abused with false violations and extended imprisonment just to increase jail revenue. This is the last thing the heavily corrupt cook county system needs. Think District 2 with a profit motive.
This isn't speculation - it's already happening with the increasing privitization of the prison system. We already have an exceedingly punitive system with questionable mandatory sentences for certain offenses. We don't need to add state sanctioned debt. Once someone's done their time, they should be done, not have a lein placed on their lives.
there are not 10,000 new detainees per day at the cook county jail as you state in your article. there are 300-350 per day. there are 10,000 HOUSED at the jail each day (300 in, 300 out).