Five years after the rape and murder of an 11-year-old baby-sitter in Waukegan led to the abandonment of electronic monitoring, it may be implemented again by Lake County authorities to handle a burgeoning inmate population.
A presentation on the latest technology in electronic monitoring systems is scheduled Wednesday for Lake County judges, and their approval could provide the impetus for resumption of the program, officials said.
“The real linchpin here is the judges themselves have got to feel comfortable,” Lake County Sheriff Gary Del Re said. “And if we can all feel a degree of comfort, then I think it’s something we will look at seriously.”
Larry Lesza, county director of corrections, said he believes the time is right.
“I think we’re going to get the green light to put it out for bid,” Lesza said.
Electronic monitoring, which has been used by Cook County and the Illinois Department of Corrections for years, was abandoned by Lake County after the 1992 murder of Holly Staker.
Authorities say the man accused in the crime, Juan Rivera, circumvented an electronic bracelet and slipped out of his home the night of the murder. Rivera was awaiting trial on burglary charges.
Holly’s murder was followed by embarrassing revelations about the monitoring program. Internal court memos released by county officials detailed serious problems with the system long before Holly’s death.
Ironically, the resumption of the program may roughly coincide with Rivera’s retrial, set to begin Dec. 1 before Judge Christopher Starck. Rivera, 24, was convicted and sentenced to life without parole, but a state appeals court ordered a retrial last fall, citing errors made by the judge.
“I’m sure (Holly’s death) played a major role in discontinuing the program, as well as playing a part in our . . . slow and cautious approach in phasing it (back) in,” said Angelo Kyle (D-Waukegan), chairman of the Lake County Board’s Law and Judicial Committee.
Once the judges review the new system and Kyle’s committee signs off on it, it will be up to the full County Board to approve a system. Officials said that too many variables are at play to allow a cost estimate.
“We’re making certain that the units are not defective and making certain we have the highest-quality systems,” he said.
The proposal under consideration by county officials would initially involve buying 50 monitoring units, with 25 allocated for Lake County Jail inmates and 25 for prisoners in the work-release program, Del Re and Lesza said.
All 50 would be used for non-violent offenders who have displayed good behavior while incarcerated and are nearing the end of their sentences.
Authorities say new technology has made home monitoring more effective in the years since Holly’s murder. State-of-the-art systems use electronic voice-identification technology, bracelets, anklets and computers to ensure that criminals stay home when they have been ordered to do so.
No monitoring would be allowed for defendants awaiting trial, as was the case with Rivera.
“The obvious thing is the safety and security issue,” Del Re said. “We want to be very careful about its application–that we confine this to low-risk offenders. If the parameters are correct and the technology is in place, then I think it will be something we will look at it with a very, very critical eye.”
The system could help avoid potential crowding in the 587-bed Lake County Jail, which is nearing capacity as the county population continues its rapid rise. The jail houses inmates awaiting trial, serving sentences of less than a year or awaiting transfer to state prison after conviction.
Lesza said the jail population stood at 511 last weekend, and he predicted that the jail would be full in six months.
“It gets dangerous when you reach that level,” he said. “We should never exceed 560 or 570(, and that was the understanding we had when we built this facility,” which opened in 1989.
Another avenue open to county officials to ease crowding would be to build a minimum-security facility, although that prospect remains in the planning stages.
“This is just one segment of what we hope will be . . . a number of different alternatives of confinement we can bring to the table,” Del Re said.
Lake County Board Chairman Robert Grever said last week that officials will “explore any possible avenue to address the growing inmate problem.”
“It’s important we start addressing this thing before we get to a crisis situation,” he said.
Lake County State’s Atty. Michael Waller said he might support electronic monitoring if it were used at the end of a prisoner’s term, when theoretically the inmate would be less likely to try to circumvent the system.
“I’m against electronic monitoring for people awaiting trial,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, we should incarcerate people who deserve to be incarcerated.”
The program still must clear several hurdles before being used again in Lake County. But Kyle and others said it is being seriously discussed.
“I would say it’s probably coming off the back burner,” he said. “Slowly, though. I have to emphasize that.”
