Cal Skinner has a great story today (Nov. 16) about a lie in a statement to Daily Herald reporter Chuck Keeshan for his story last week on the detainee money program at the McHenry County Jail.
Oh, wait; it couldn't have been a lie. It must have been a misunderstanding, or maybe an error, or maybe a little static in a cell phone.
On November 9, Keeshan wrote that "Deputy Corrections Chief Patrick Firman said the change was necessary for the jail to abide by state regulations governing how it handles inmates' money." http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=335065
Today Cal Skinner wrote on www.mchenrycountyblog.com that the change instituted by the Jail is not required by the State of Illinois. Good going, Cal!!!
I've been wondering just how much money the Jail rakes in from commissary item commissions, from the $5.00 service fee on the money machine (kiosk) in the lobby and from the $5.00 service fee charged to those who transfer money into an inmate's account via the online plan. A $5.00 fee is exorbitant.
I've been thinking about a FOIA Request for the financial end of things and also copies of the contracts. You'd think that out of $90.00/day/detainee the Jail might absorb a tiny charge for money transfers into an account, but I guess the Jail is on the lookout for every possible money-making scheme that it can use.
I found it very interesting that, of all the jails and prisons in the entire State of Illinois, the McHenry County Jail is the only jail in Illinois that uses www.mycarepack.com for an internet deposit arrangement. Check out the outrageous prices for their commissary items; ex., $1.60 for a candy bar and you can't even tell what size it is.
Isn't there a truth-in-advertising law that requires a seller to reveal what size item you are selling for a certain price?
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Trying to decide if it's a bigger story that prisoners may be paying too much for their extra box of Swiss cake rolls than they would at Jewel, or that some other blog called a state agency and were simply told they weren't the agency that would set rules about how the county would set such charges.
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