By C1 Staff
KANE COUNTY, Ill. — Sheriff Don Kramer has booted federal inmates out of the Kane County Jail after deeming their presence a danger to his officers.
The Daily Herald reports that the loss of the inmates will also mean a loss of $1.4 million in revenue to the county.
Forty-three detainees were removed from the jail last week. The county’s 2015 budget is still partially based on the $2.4 million in projected income from the housing of federal inmates. The projection is based on the five-year history of the relationship between U.S. Marshals and the county.
“It’s a lot of revenue, but we don’t have the capacity at the jail,” Kramer said. “It’s a big safety issue. There’s some liability issues. We sometimes mandate people to work double shifts. The staff is burned out. We have people that don’t want to stay here.”
The correctional officer’s union has gone without a contract for five years, and has filed grievances related to work hours, staffing and conditions. Those grievances started roughly around the same time as when the jail started housing federal inmates.
Kramer says getting a new union contract in place is one of his goals for 2015.
He said he won’t consider putting federal inmates back into the jail unless staffing went up by at least 10 people.
“My obligation is not to bring in revenue into the county. There’s a big cost to do that,” he said. “My first priority has to be to have a safe environment for my 120 correctional officers.”
There is no guarantee that the marshals will bring federal inmates back into the county even with staffing changes.
While committee members said they respected Kramer’s authority to run the jail, they reminded him of his fiduciary responsibility to local taxpayers.
“The answer is very simple,” said Joe Onzick, the county’s finance director.” We must find a way to either replace [the money], or, if we can’t replace it, we will need to cut $1.4 million in expenditures as soon as possible. We do not have any other alternative.”
Kramer had no immediate plans to find new revenue or how to cut $1.4 million out of his budget.