Have a n(ICE) day

Rumor has it that an inspection will be made today of the ICE unit at the McHenry County Jail. Among concerns are the over-crowding conditions that could create a very unsafe condition for both inmates and jailers. Generally, inmates will outnumber guards, but what about in the recreational areas? How many prisoners might there be in one rec area, and how many guards are there? Are all the guards bi-lingual? Are disturbances (oh, all right... fights) reported to the public? How many guards (jailers; employees) have been injured in physical conflicts within the Jail?

What happens when you put too many people in too small a space and keep them for too long with too little to do? Care to guess what happens when you get a match too close to gasoline?

The ICE unit is a huge money-maker for McHenry County. One figure that I have heard bounced around is $1,500,000/year. Does anyone really know just how many detainees are being held in the ICE unit and how long they are being held?

Let's say that a person (and let's say he just happens to be of brown skin and Latino surname) is stopped and arrested for no valid driver's license. When he goes to court, the judge tells him (and all in the courtroom) that, if he is convicted and if he is in this country illegally, he is subject to deportation. (And at least one judge does, in fact, say this in his courtroom.)

The judge finds him guilty of the driver's license violation and fines him $75 plus court costs ($150?). Pay and go? Ah, but wait. There's that sticky deportation issue.

Instead of being released, the defendant is sent off to the lock-up. And there he sits - possibly for months. The benefit to McHenry County? $80-100/day income for EACH day this guy is locked up.

How do many of the "No Valid" arrests get made? Suppose a deputy sees a Latino-appearing driver pass by. He runs the license plate through the in-car computer and sees that there is no driver's license information attached to the vehicle registration. Then he makes a traffic stop. The driver, who might or might not be the owner of the vehicle, might or might not be able to present a valid driver's license.

In the absence of a moving violation and probable cause to make the traffic stop, is the stop valid? Is it legal? What if the driver isn't the owner of the vehicle? But this driver doesn't know all the nuances of the law and can't afford an attorney for a traffic violation.

What if the judge ordered electronic monitoring at $13-15/day, instead of locking up the person whose fine and court costs amount to less than $300? I guess he wouldn't be too popular with the financial people running the jail. But judges usually aren't in popularity contests, anyway.

Would inmate density be lower at the McHenry County Jail, if electronic monitor were ordered instead of confinement? What is the design capacity for the ICE unit at the McHenry County Jail and how many prisoners are being held? Not the average per day, mind you. The actual numbers.

And how many detainees from other jurisdictions are we housing? Kind of gives new meaning to "If you build it, they will come", doesn't it? How many are being held who were transferred here to the McHenry County Hotel? And how long are they being held? Their confinement might bring an element to and through Woodstock as visitors whom we would rather not have here.

This information is hard to get, because phone calls to the person reportedly in charge of releasing information are not returned. Ahhh, there is always the FOIA Request.