Sheriff and State's Attorney Offices Appear at Cook County Budget Hearings

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings
Day #7 - October 28, 2016        

Cook County Sheriff - presented by Tom Dart, Cook County Sheriff
Proposed Budget
FY17 - $633,359,903 
FY16 - $520,257,341    
Proposed FTEs
FY17 - 6,667 FTEs
FY16 - 6,772 FTE’s
In 2016 - Detainees in the Jail number about 8300 with approximately 2500 on Electronic Monitoring (EM)  
In 2010 - Detainees numbered closer to 10,000 in jail with only a few hundred on EM.

Key Information Presented:
Sheriff Dart gave a short presentation about how his budget is up while his jail population is down. He indicated the cost of overtime and the increase in special programs set up for detainees are the reasons for the budget increase. His officers are also spending more time helping other police districts, especially in the southern suburbs. Most of his time was spent answering the commissioners’ questions. He took all of the questions very seriously and gave thoughtful and expansive answers. When he did not have a good answer ready for a serious issue, he always said “I would welcome suggestions on how to handle this.” By appearing to not know everything about law enforcement and incarceration, he used his time to engage in a very thoughtful dialogue. The Commissioners who were present were Sims, Garcia, Boykin, Morrison, Silvestri, Schneider, Moore, Gainer, and Daley.

Questions/Comments from Commissioners:

• Comm. Sims asked about the “SAVE” program. The Sheriff said that it was aimed at detainees who were 18-23 years of age, male, and from high crime neighborhoods. These young men are asking for help in parenting and help in staying away from gangs. The Sheriff admitted to having problems keeping rival gangs apart when housing them on tiers in certain divisions. He said separation was easier when there were larger, more organized gangs in Chicago. Now these large gangs have lots of subgroups and it is difficult to determine gang loyalties.
• The Commissioner asked about alternative housing for jailed substance abusers and those detainees with mental health issues. The Sheriff appealed to the board for more funding to house these inmates outside of the jail, which he said was much cheaper than housing them inside. He also spoke of the need for more CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) training of all police in Cook.
• Comm. Silvestri asked about the mental health of the Corrections Officers. The Sheriff admitted to a higher than average suicide rate among his CO’s. Each CO is given a psychology screening upon hiring and then given support for any issues that come up during their employment by a peer support staff.
• The Commissioner asked about the abuse of sick time, especially during holidays and sporting events. The Commissioner asked if there was a correlation of employees getting migraine headaches and the Cubs being in the World Series. There was some laughter in the crowd after that remark, but then the Sheriff got serious.  He tried to tie attendance to promotions, but this did not seem to make a big difference. He admitted that sick time abuse is a terrible problem that he did not exactly know how to solve. He welcomed suggestions.
• Comm. Gainer asked about women’s programs in the jail. The Sheriff stated that women make up only 6% of total detainees and that number has not changed much since his tenure as Sheriff. He said that women do show more signs of mental illness than men (55% of total detainees who are female have some symptoms of mental illness, compared to 33% of men).
• Comm. Gainer mentioned STAR (Performance Management Goals) with regards to fee collections during the eviction process. The Sheriff stated that his fee collection numbers are similar to other counties.
• Comm. Schneider asked about the recent fight involving jail stabbings in Division 9 that led to some injuries of detainees and staff. The Sheriff said that he released the video of the incident immediately and that the fight had no serious injuries. This is a very maximum security division with some of the most dangerous detainees in the system. The commissioner complimented him on the timeliness of the video release.
• Comm. Boykin asked about gun violence in general. The Sheriff answered that this a very complex issue with lots of moving parts. Job training is one part and the Sheriff touted his Renew Program that trains detainees in carpentry and demolition skills. This program has helped to demolish or rehab many abandoned structures in the southern suburbs and Maywood. The Sheriff would like to provide opportunities to develop some job skills to all detainees.
• The Commissioner also asked about heroin overdoses. The Sheriff said that all of his officers will soon be trained to administer Naloxone (anti-dote) in such cases.
• Comm. Garcia asked about the problems of detainees on electronic monitoring who have to get to job interviews or other such necessary appointments. There are delays in reaching those in charge of those bracelets in order to “turn off” the mechanism temporarily. The Sheriff promised to look into this issue.
• Comm. Moore also asked about the recent stabbings in Div.9 and about the ERT officers (Emergency Response Team).  The Sheriff admitted to having stressed out officers in this division and to always having ERT staff in place there. He is also expanding this unit. The federal government is constantly evaluating the numbers of staffers in place and the length of their shifts. The Sheriff is also working out ways to keep his staff safe from detainees who like to throw bodily fluids at the CO’s (and some substances that are not so fluid). A 6 foot wall is sometimes used to deliver meals to the most dangerous detainees who use this method to retaliate against some CO’s.

Sheriff Dart concluded his remarks with an offer to all of the commissioners to keep the dialogue open and to reach solutions to these problems together.


Cook County State’s Attorney - presented by Gavin Ambrose, Chief of Staff for SA 
Proposed Budget
FY17 - $21,733,224
FY16 - $21,709,450
Proposed FTEs
FY17 - 1,327 
FY16 - 1,391

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez did not show up for the State's Attorney budget presentation.  She had sent a written statement prior to the the meeting to all of the Commissioners. Those present (Daley, Boykin, Garicia Silvestri, Sims, Moore, Gainer, Morrison, and Schneider) did not want her statement read aloud by her Chief of Staff, Gavin Ambrose. Instead, Mr. Ambrose and other staffers did their best to answer the questions of the commissioners.

Written Statement: After the meeting I (the observer) was told that I could find the statement online under “Meeting Details”. The statement listed some of the achievements that the SA had completed during her 8 years in office. These included;

1. New state laws aimed at reducing straw purchases of guns (guns bought legally by one person and then resold illegally to another)
2. RICO laws used against gang violence. (anti-racketeering laws).
3. 75% reduction in arrests for misdemeanor drug crimes.
4. An increase from 8 to 30 in the number of alternative courts. (for mental health, and defendants with substance abuse addictions, for example).
5. Addition of a human trafficking prosecution unit.
6. The Conviction Integrity Unit, to fight wrongful convictions.
7. Community based prosecutions which involve solutions generated in neighborhoods.

Questions/Concerns of the Commissioners:

• Comm. Gainer asked about the success of the prostitution courts. Mr. Gavin said that this crime was now treated as a misdemeanor and this has been a success for women who complete the program of treatment. Loyola University is studying this program and analyzing the results. She also asked about the increase in time for disposition of most cases. It was admitted that the time was increased due to less staff.
• Comm. Garcia asked if the loss of investigators led to less prosecutions. Not so, said Mr. Gavin since the investigators are saved for the most violent crimes.
• Comm. Silvestri asked about the lesser amount of drug and property seizures. Mr. Gavin said that the Chicago Police Dept. is in charge of these seizures.
• Comm. Boykin asked about victims’ programs. Mr. Gavin admitted that budget cuts have cut both the witness and the victim programs. The state had some programs to help with this, however.
• Comm. Moore asked about appeals taking longer. A similar answer was given to this question as to the one asked by Comm. Gainer about the time increase for disposition of cases.
• Other questions were asked and answered about the racial breakdown within the staff. Also mentioned briefly was the issue of the slowness of civil cases.

Overall, it would have been better to have heard directly from the State’s Attorney. The answers given were not as in depth as they would have been had she been present.

Observer - Jan Goldberg