County jail boosts revenue with immigration detainees
By BRIAN SLUPSKI - bslupski@nwherald.com
WOODSTOCK – Federal immigration detainees and prisoners from other counties might one day pay the entire cost of running McHenry County’s jail.
For years, McHenry County has housed federal detainees as well as prisoners from other police jurisdictions that were short on space. The practice has been profitable, with the county coming out millions of dollars ahead.
“What we have tried to do is run the jail like a business, where the bottom line matters,” McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said.
Although the word “detainees” now evokes images of long-held terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, those are not the sort of detainees in McHenry County. Nygren said he would not accept such detainees.
McHenry County’s federal detainees come from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nygren said the immigration status of the detainees was not the sole reason that most of them end up being detained. Most face some kind of state charge, Nygren said.
“They are here because they came to the attention of law enforcement for some reason,” Nygren said.
The detainees are from all over the world.
When the county first began accepting detainees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the jail received many Chinese women who had been lured to the country under false pretenses and had to be processed through immigration, Nygren said. Now, Nygren said, Hispanics make up the biggest population.
In 2008, the average daily number of inmates in the jail was about 501. Most of those were so-called contracted prisoners – people held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or another policing agency, such as the Kane County Sheriff’s Department. Only 190 prisoners were from McHenry County; the remaining 311 were contracted.
“My goal is to someday have the per diem rental for prisoners pay for the entire jail budget,” Nygren said.
The county charges about $85 a day to house prisoners. In 2008, contracted prisoners generated about $10.8 million in revenue from housing and transporting prisoners. Of that, about $8.6 million came from federal detainees.
The biggest expense to the county is paying for the 70 correctional officer positions needed to run the portion of the jail dedicated to contracted inmates. Most correctional officers earn between $40,660 and $68,871 a year.
“We have a revenue stream that we otherwise would not have,” Nygren said. “This is paying a dividend to the taxpayers.”
Although the county has been taking contracted prisoners since about 2001, the program took off after the jail was expanded in 2005. The county completed the third floor of the jail that year, doubling its capacity. A grant from the federal government paid about $6.4 million of the $14 million expansion cost.
The jail includes a small courtroom with a video link to Chicago that can be used for detainees to make court appearances to cut down on travel costs. The length of time that federal detainees stay in McHenry County varies but is usually no more than a few months.
“The needs of the [federal detainees] are different than pretrial detainees or people who are awaiting bond,” McHenry County Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Lukas said, adding that the detainees are kept separate from the rest of the jail population.
Detainees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are held on the newer, third floor of the jail. Although a mirror image of the rest of the jail, there are subtle differences.
For example, on the second floor, correctional officers are above the prisoners and observe what happens from monitors and cameras. On the third floor, a correctional officer directly observes the prisoners. The officer is placed in the common area of the cell block, at a station near the prisoners.
The change has nothing to do with the status of the prisoners, but represents a change in philosophy. Officers establish more control by having a physical presence in the common area.
“The officer has more of a feeling of what is going on in the section,” Lukas said. “If a prisoner is having a problem, he can go to the officer.”
Language issues occasionally arise, Lukas said, but it has not been a big problem. The county does have access to a language line that can provide translators when needed.
Nygren said the program has been a tremendous benefit to McHenry County. By holding federal prisoners, the county was able to expand the jail and avoid overcrowding issues.
“We have created a facility – a secured, detention facility – that will serve this county’s needs for the next 30 years,” Nygren said.
