How much would you pay for a night in the Will County Jail?
County officials think their rates should run up to $56 per day.
The County Board, in a money-raising effort, has directed its lobbyist to push for a state law that would allow counties to charge jail inmates who are convicted of crimes for their stay, a notion inspired by a program in Michigan.
Proponents say it only makes sense to charge the people who are found guilty for the food, drink and other accommodations at the Will County Jail, which has an annual budget for salary and operating expenses of $18.6 million.
“These people, most of them, have committed a crime,” said Steve Weber, the county auditor who proposed the idea after learning of its success in Macomb County, near Detroit, where such fees bring in nearly 3 percent of the jail budget. “Why should the taxpayers pay for that? The taxpayers are paying the initial burden of the crime.”
Although the details still must be worked out, the fee would likely be charged on a sliding scale according to ability to pay, with the lowest rate at $6 a night.
But for those with the means, is $56 a fair price for a night at the jail–when, because of overcrowding, inmates must double up in 11-foot-wide cells designed for one?
“Fifty bucks?” asked Joliet defense attorney Doug DeBoer. “You can stay at Red Roof Inn for 50 bucks.”
Jail officials, though, say they are giving inmates a bargain.
New arrivals receive blankets and sheets right away, as well as a snack if they are hungry. After that, they receive three meals a day and a visit to a doctor and dentist within 14 days of arriving. (There is a $5 charge for the doctor, $7.50 for the dentist, fees that are waived for the indigent.)
Looking over a recent lunch menu of meatballs and gravy over rice, vegetables, bread and butter, dessert and juice, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Pat Barry said he was surprised at the variety of food.
“This is better than a three-star hotel,” he said. “I don’t want to be locked up. But the amenities you get, my goodness.”
Last year, a grants writer hired by Will County to find more revenue sources stumbled across the Macomb County pay-as-you-go jail program. Will County officials said they also learned that jurisdictions in four other states–Texas, Ohio, Minnesota and Oregon–are implementing similar programs.
Officials do not know how many of the average 506 inmates at the jail every day would be able to pay. But they speculate most are indigent because otherwise they would be able to make bail.
In addition, it is unlikely that jail inmates who are found guilty, then sent to prison, would have the means to repay the county years later when they are released.
As a result, county officials think they are most likely to recoup money from those in the work-release program where participants convicted of certain crimes leave jail to go to work, or from people who are in jail briefly and have kept their jobs.
But forcing payment will increase expectations, warns a hospitality expert, who said the jail might even have to come up with a two-tiered system of services for those who pay.
“If the food is horrible, who can you complain to?” asked chef Michael McGreal, chair of the culinary arts and hospitality management department at Joliet Junior College.
McGreal even envisions meal packages, where the paying “customers” of the jail could order a steak and baked potato meal, or fried chicken and dressing, instead of more basic grub.
“I would think it’s like anything. At a restaurant, you pay a certain amount of money and you expect a certain amount of quality or service,” McGreal said.
No matter what food is being served, civil libertarians say the plan leaves a bad taste in their mouths because the incarcerated already are paying by losing their freedom.
“We have a moral obligation to be responsible for the people we’ve incarcerated, that we’ve locked up,” said Ed Yohnka, director of communications for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.
Yohnka also was concerned that forcing people to pay would hinder their ability to support their family or meet other obligations upon release.
Some jails across the country already charge inmates processing fees, to have extra cookies or to visit doctors, said Kim Stelter, a member of the American Jail Association board of directors and a major with the Harris County Sheriff’s Department in Texas.
But she worries that another stress, such as lingering debt, would place too great a burden on the incarcerated, especially the large number of people in for drug-related crimes.
“To me, I’d rather have you pay your taxes,” she said.
Richard Tewksbury, professor of justice administration at the University of Louisville, agreed.
“Basically, the question becomes, are we pushing someone into committing further crimes in order to get money to pay for their last incarceration?” he asked. “Which would be sort of stupid.”
In Will County, some County Board members said they understand the financial pressures for a newly released convict.
“We don’t intend to saddle anybody with a debt that grounds them,” said Ron Svara, chair of the County Board’s Legislative Committee. “There is a consideration of ability to pay. My idea is, if somebody’s got child care to pay for, that’s coming first.”
It remains unclear how much money the county could gain. For 20 years, Macomb County in Michigan has been charging people who are found guilty for the period after their conviction, for those whose sentences are less than a year.
Last year, such fees contributed about 2.9 percent to the jail budget, or about $861,000 of a $30 million budget, said Mark Hackel, Macomb County sheriff.
Will County Jail expenses are expected to go up with the planned $50 million expansion.
William Mahar, a former state senator from Orland Park who now lobbies the General Assembly, said legislation could allow Will County to become a sort of pilot county for the idea. He said he has received good feedback but lacks a sponsor for the bill.
Weber hopes the legislature will embrace the idea as a way to defray ever-growing jail costs.
“If you and I had to put ourselves up in a motel, we’d have to pay for it,” Weber said. “Why shouldn’t they?”
