Published: November 23, 2009 10:18 pm      

County waiting on inmate negotiations

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — Jefferson County will have to wait until April to negotiate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to receive additional detainees.

“We’d like to add more now, but our initial contract date is in April,” Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch reported to the County Board on Monday. “The powers that be ... said they would like to negotiate at this time, but the contract is not up yet.”

County board member Jim Laird cautioned members of the board to be watching the funds received from out-of-county prisoners at the Jefferson County Justice Center.

“People on the street think we’re making money,” Laird claimed. “But that’s just not true.”

County board member Robert White clarified that, “We’re not making money, but we’re taking in money.”

The money received by the county for housing U.S. Marshal’s Service inmates, Cook County inmates and ICE detainees goes toward the operating costs of the jail, but do not cover all expenses, according to Jefferson County Board Chairman Ted Buck.

“I would rather see us getting money from the federal government or Cook County for part of the costs of the jail than get nothing,” Buck said. “Our mistake was building a 250 bed jail. ... Governments are not in the business of making a profit. We’ll be good if we can just break even on this.”

Mulch reported that for about a month, all beds were full at the facility, and about 80 to 90 percent of the beds are being used at this time.

“We still have to pay for the jail, whether it’s full or not,” county board member Don Rector commented.

Buck reported that Jefferson County received $250,000 from ICE in the last two weeks for housing detainees. He also commented that moving federal detainees from Guantanamo Bay to northern Illinois could affect Jefferson County, but did not elaborate on the comment.

“There could be 3,000 new federal jobs up there,” Buck said. “We’re going to have to stay on our toes.”