Cook County Board of Commissioners Meeting - December 17, 2020
Virtual Meeting - All Commissioners present  
President Preckwinkle left at 2:10 to attend the Covid inoculation.  Vice Chair Sims took over.

Public Speakers:

• Statements were read by the Board Secretary and included support for the change of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples day, support and opposition to the landlord/tenant ordinance, concerns about the use of electronic monitoring.

Board Actions:

• Agenda Item 21-0019 Appointment of Michelle Kohler to Cook County Commission on Women’s Issues.   Approved.
• 21-0490   The proclamation of disaster under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act due to Covid was extended through January 31, 2021.   Passed
• 21-0295  The Department of Transportation and Highways  requested approval of the Intergovernmental Agreement between the County and Metra. Beginning in January 2021, Cook County and the region's transit agencies will launch a three-year pilot project to improve transit service for the residents of south suburban Cook and the south side of Chicago. The pilot will begin with a 50% fare reduction on the Metra Electric and Rock Island commuter rail lines and service improvements on the Pace 352 bus route.  Cook County will underwrite the costs of the participating agencies.   Passed.
• 21-0441, 21-0445  Ammar Rizki from the Bureau of Finance explained the resolutions to contribute $341,961,760 to the Pension Stabilization Fund beyond the statute required amount. FY2021 Pension Fund supplemental contributions will be made on a monthly basis in the amount of $20,000,000 from December 2020 through October 2021. The final FY 2021 Pension Fund supplemental contribution will be made during November 2021 in the amount of $33,961,760.        Passed.
• 21-001  The Department of Transportation and Highways requested approval of the proposed Improvement Resolution for the South Cook Fair Transit Pilot. The funds will go towards the planning studies and implementation of the South Cook Fair Transit Pilot in southern Cook County. These funds are to be used with both Metra and Pace working in conjunction on this project. Commission Degnen questioned how this could impact CTA ridership.   President Preckwinkle responded that the Department of Transportation is currently working with Metra and PACE and there are ongoing discussions with the CTA.   Passed
• 21-0367   Authorization to enter into an interagency agreement. The Cook County Safety and Justice Challenge Stakeholders including the Office of the Chief Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Cook County Public Defender’s Office, and Cook County Sheriff’s Office will partner with Loyola University to provide the data to develop a data portal to host criminal justice data to support data-informed policy decision making. Commissioner Keven Morrison asked when findings will be available.     The contract is for 2 years, but data will start to be shared immediately.     Passed.
• 21-0352   This was a request from the Sheriff’s Office and the Court to expand the existing approved contract with the GPS equipment provider.  The equipment is used for electronic monitoring. The Original Approval amount was $4,064,311.50.  The increase requested was $13,389,943.00. The increase to the contract is needed due to the unforeseen significant increase in electronic monitoring (EM) participants during FY 2020 because of the Covid virus, the program to reduce the use of cash bail, and the Sheriff’s Office transitioning current EM participants from radio frequency equipment to GPS equipment. There was a one-hour discussion about this resolution.  Initially it had been decided to send the resolution to committee because several commissioners had questions before the meeting.  Other commissioners requested to approve the increase as the Sheriff’s office has said they could run out of equipment.  Commissioner Sean Morrison pointed out that this contract had been discussed and approved and that the resolution was only for additional money.  Commissioner Anaya and Commissioner Kevin Morrison had a number of questions about the current usage of equipment for both radio frequency and GPS monitoring and why the projection for money was so much.    Representatives of the Sheriff’s office had to check on answers.   The monitoring is moving from radio frequency to GPS.   The equipment is leased and so any outdated radio frequency equipment is being returned to the vendor and all GPS equipment has to be recycled to that vendor for sterilization after use Commissioners Anaya, Johnson, Miller and Degnen had concerns about the use of electronic monitoring.  Degnen, Miller, and Anaya had received a letter from George Washington University about the negatives in using electronic monitoring.  That is why they wanted the whole program to be discussed in committee.  Passed    14 yes 3 no
• 20-3460 Juneteenth Recognized as a paid Cook County Holiday.   Several Commissioners spoke in favor of this.    There was no discussion about costs.   Passed.

​Follow Up Items

• Agenda Item 20-5667 PROPOSED RESOLUTION Requesting Presentations from the Cook County Treasurer and Cook County Assessor to Discuss the Impact of Increased Property Taxes on Constituents

Observer:  Kathleen Graffam                                                        Meeting Length:  5 hours

Cook County Board Finance Committee Departmental Budget Hearings
Nov. 5, 2020
Cook County Sheriff - Tom Dart
Proposed Budget for 2021 - $573,162,818                    Proposed # of FTEs for 2021 - 5560
Budget for 2020 - $598,867,299                                   FTEs in 2020 Budget - 5866
Difference - Decrease of $25,704,481                          Difference - Decrease of 306


Highlights of the Sheriff’s Presentation:

1. Sheriff Dart told the Commissioners that he could live within the reduced budget this year for a number of reasons. The 306 positions that were eliminated were vacancies so he did not have to rely on layoffs. The lack of evictions and the use of zoom in many courtrooms led to less officers being deployed in these areas. He could now use them in the jail. However he stressed multiple times that should these situations change or if he sees more retirements during the year (he normally sees 30-40 each month) he may be in need of more personnel.
2. He stressed his Covid response as being a model for all jails and prisons in the nation. He touted his 2.6% positivity rate for detainees and staff as proof that testing, social distancing and hand sanitizer works. He credits his staff with reopening many divisions that were long closed. He also gave great praise to Dr. Connie Manella at Cermak Health, the detainees’ health center.
3. He stressed his frugality over the last 14 years during his leadership. He said that expenditures have gone down $130 million and that employee numbers have been reduced over 1300 during these years.
4. He said that CC Jail is a model for family visitation, currently taking place outside, but will move to a “bubble” during the winter months. He includes testing of family members if they want. He said that CC Jail was the first jail in the nation to do these things.
5. He also said that CC Jail was the first jail in the nation to have a polling place inside. He has worked with universities in order to get teachers inside to conduct classes dealing with this election and voter guides.
6. He talked at length about the other programs run by his office, especially Community Policing and Treatment Response Team. These involve having sheriff’s police respond to 911 calls that result in the de-escalation of incidents, especially those involving mentally ill arrestees.
7. He touted his Drug Take Back Program which involves sites where citizens can drop unused prescription or non prescription drugs. This has resulted in over 25 million pills being destroyed, a fact that is great for the environment and for those addicted to some of these drugs.
8. He talked at length about the Electronic Monitoring (EM) Program. As the CC Jail has been reduced in population (about 5500 detainees now) the EM population has gone up in the past year to 3000, an increase of about 1000 people. In addition, his office receives requests for movement from about half of these folks almost every day. His office has only about 20 officers to monitor this program. He asked the board for suggestions. He also was very concerned about the number of people on EM who were charged with serious crimes. EM was not designed for this. He has a goal of placing all EM recipients on GPS.
9. Finally, the sheriff is very concerned about the length of stay for both detainees at the jail and on EM. He has tried to work with the Public Defender’s office about this issue. Many board members stated that the Chief Judge would appear before them tomorrow (Nov. 6th) and that they would bring up this issue.

Highlights of the Commissioners’ Questions:
It was difficult to see if all 17 Commissioners were present. At least 14 of them asked questions.

1. Chairman Daley asked if the people on EM were committing new crimes while on this device. The Sheriff would get back to him with numbers. Also discussed were the reasons for the delays in adjudication of cases. The Sheriff said some delays were caused by attorneys who got too many delays from some judges. Also Covid is causing everything to slow down as more courtrooms rely on Zoom for preliminary hearings.
2. Commissioner Deer asked about a community policing program in Austin. The Sheriff said that they have an office at Chicago and Lockwood that works with kids after school.
3. Commissioner Johnson asked how the Sheriff’s special programs could be measured for success. All programs should be measured for the positive impact they have on the targeted population. He wanted to know how the Sheriff would go about this. The Sheriff agreed that studies and data were needed. He had some preliminary studies on the mental health program for detainees who went through it and were 60 to 90 days released. He admitted that after that,  he did not have good data. He asked for help in getting this data.
4. Commissioner Miller asked about the training for the “use of force”. The Sheriff responded that his training in this area has become a model for suburban departments. She also asked about “non-traditional community policing”. The Sheriff talked about establishing trust within a community. He was able to do this by working on school truancy, getting kids hooked up to the internet for school, demolition of abandoned buildings, offering free Covid testing, offering free Flu shots, etc.
5. Vice Chairman Sims thanked the Sheriff for his help in policing Ford Heights, Dixmoor, and Robbins.
6. Commissioner Anaya asked about the yearly costs of jailing a detainee vs. placing him on EM. The Sheriff responded that jail was approximately $70,000 per detainee per year vs. $9000 per year for EM. She also asked about the possibility of the Chief Judge taking over the whole EM program. The Sheriff said that it was still a possibility, but that he would like to retain control over those detainees that were in one of his special programs.
7. Commissioner Suffredin asked about this year’s budget reduction of $25.7 million and how impacted his office would be. The Sheriff responded that the cuts were more like $68 million if you added up all of the costs of new programs that he wanted to propose. He said that he would live within his means mostly through attrition of staff. He did not think he would need to cut any programs.
   
8. All of the Commissioners asked if any of his special programs were duplications of programs that already exist in the community. The Sheriff said that many of them might be, but while he had these detainees in custody he wanted get them the help they needed. Once released, part of his Discharge Plan was to get them set up with housing and with community programs so that he did not see them cycle through the jail again.

The Sheriff and the Commissioners seemed to have great respect for each other. There were many friendly greetings and compliments and a real desire to improve public safety in Cook County.

Observed by Jan Goldberg                                                                      Meeting Length - about 3 hours

Cook County Commissioners - Board and Committee Meetings
July 27, 29 and 30, 2020

Key items passed by the Board:

• “Justice for Black Lives” Resolution.  The substitute non-binding resolution calls on monies for policing and incarceration to be redirected to public services, not administered by law enforcement, which will promote community health and public safety, particularly in Black and Brown communities most impacted by violence and incarceration.  Such services to include housing, health care, mental health, restorative justice, job creation, public transport, eviction/foreclosure, and increasing opportunities for Minority-owned and Women-owned business enterprises.  Passed with 15 votes; Commissioner Aguilar voted present and Commissioner Sean Morrison voted no, both expressing concern with the idea that the resolution calls for defunding the police.  Commissioners voting in favor say that this lays out priorities for reducing crime and promoting opportunities through these other means.  The upcoming 2021 budget (which will be considered in October and November) will offer the first opportunity for the Commissioners to start to carry out the resolution. (Agenda Item 20-2867)
• Resolution to utilize $82 million of money County received under the CARES Act to aid economic recovery from COVID-19.  (Agenda Item 20-3229)  See the Observer Report for the Special Board Meeting on July 16 for details of the distribution.

Other Items of Interest Discussed in Committees:
Finance Committee:

• County’s Use of CARES Act funds:  CFO Ammar Rizki reported that the $429 million has been allocated for (1) County’s operational costs (46%), (2) County’s direct costs incurred  (23%), (3) spurs for economic development across the County (19%, the Resolution described above), and (4) $51 M for eligible costs incurred by suburban municipalities (12%, as described in the Observer Report for the July 16 Special Board Meeting).  New guidance comes out regularly from the U.S. Treasury as to how these monies can be spent.  Mr. Rizki said that with $300 M in lost revenues to the County, it is critical that now County can use the CARES money to cover some salary and benefit costs.  However, Mr. Rizki said that CARES Act money can only be used to cover hazard pay for those employees directly dealing with COVID positive people (health care workers and correctional officers in the Jail).  So hazard pay provided to other people will not be covered, based on current information.  Mr. Rizki stressed that with many people predicting a spike in COVID cases in the fall, the County needs to conserve some of these funds to cover future costs.
• To date, 439 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
• So far, no monies have been allocated to township governments, which have other options.
• Mr. Rizki receives a weekly report of which municipalities have requested monies under the $51 M allocation by the County and will share with the Commissioners so they can make sure municipalities in their districts are applying for that money.
• Cook County Health has received $59 million of CARES Act funding in May in addition to the above as a health care provider. 

Audit Committee:

• Clean audits received for both the County as a whole and Cook County Health (“CCH”) for fiscal year 2019.  County has a Fund Balance that would cover 2 months of expenses, which is considered what is necessary.  (Agenda Items 20-2685, 2687)
• Auditor stated that CCH’s receivables tend to be risky, but thinks there are sufficient reserves to cover delinquencies.  Liabilities include $477 M of claims to County Care for outside (“foreign”) providers, $236M which are identified and the rest based on management estimates of what claims will be submitted after the fiscal year for care provided during the fiscal year.  Comm. Miller asked for breakdown of these “foreign” claims so they will know where people are going for care outside of CCH’s facilities.  Comm. Morrison wants to know dollar amount not collected due to mistakes; this goes beyond scope of this audit.  Andrea Gibson, CCH interim chief business officer, will be setting up meetings with the Commissioners.  She said that CCH is now catching out-of-network people and so not providing service under County Care.  Also, CCH is making sure getting pre-authorizations required by other insurers.
• Clean audit for Clerk of the Circuit Court, except that fees not disbursed in timely manner as required under Illinois Clerks of the Courts Act. (Agenda Item 20-2653)

Legislation & Intergovernmental Relations Committee:

• Review of the Final Recommended Plan for consolidating the Recorder of Deeds functions into the Office of the County Clerk.  Estimated cost savings during 2021 is $1.1 M, and annual savings thereafter over next 3 years estimated at $6 M.  Expect reductions in positions down to 79 for recorder’s work due to streamlining and broadening of work done by an employee.  Savings also due to moving Clerk’s Vital Records area from Daley Center pedway to Recorder’s office on main floor and moving Clerk’s offices on 14th floor of 69 W. Washington to Recorder’s administrative offices in County building. (Agenda Item 20-2745)  Next review by Commissioners of this consolidation will be in the proposed budget submitted in October.

Items to watch for at next Committee meetings, likely during the week of Sept. 21:

• Agenda Item 20-3562: Proposed “Residential Tenant & Landlord Ordinance,” which was referred to the Finance Committee.  Co-sponsor Britton said that this is modeled on the Chicago and Evanston ordinances.  Would spell out tenant and landlord rights and obligations.
• Agenda Item 20-3482:  Proposed resolution requesting hearings every month of the Criminal Justice Committee with the Sheriff and senior staff to discuss the operation of the Jail and Police Department (responsible for unincorporated areas plus some suburban towns under inter-government agreements).  Referred to Criminal Justice Committee.
• Agenda Item 20-3435:  Proposed resolution supporting the Illinois NAACP State Conference and Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police Ten Shared Principles.  Referred to Law Enforcement Committee.
• Commissioners Deer and Moore each submitted separate proposals to add Juneteenth as a County holiday, which were withdrawn.  The Commissioners said they would work to add this holiday without putting an added expense to the budget.

Note:  The Cook County Board and most of the Board Committees are not scheduled to meet again until week of Sept. 21, though Commissioner Suffredin wanted the public to know that everyone is still working and Commissioners continue meeting virtually in small groups (so as not to violate the Open Meetings Act) each Sunday with key County personnel.

Observer - Priscilla Mims

Cook County Board Of Commissioners’ Finance Committee
       Midyear Budget Hearings - July 21, 2020

Cook County Health - Debra Cary
Revenues as of May 31, 2020: General information from report available on Legistar 

• Medicaid Expansion up 21% from $798 million budgeted to $965 million actual            
• Patient Fee Revenue down 21% from $332 budgeted to $262 actual

Expenses: 

• $1,665 billion actual versus $1,303 billion budget = 28% higher 

Holdback Target:  Reported as N/A 

Highlights of Presentation and Discussion::

• As of 7-21, $154 million Cares Act monies have been received plus another $40 million for COVID-19 contact tracing.
• 70 positions were eliminated and another 200 agency positions identified to bring in house as a cost savings.
• Charity and unpaid care continues at 42% to date but expected to rise.
• Commission Daley stressed that the System has to reverse the large percentage of County Care MCO patients using other providers.
• System is expanding use of Telehealth but it is not considered to be an expense saver.
• Stand alone, ambulatory dialysis services at Provident to open in late 2020.
• Patient numbers are slowly rising at the hospitals and community centers as accommodations are made for social distancing.
• Cary said System needs to be prepared for COVID-19 resurgence and continued extra services at the Jail.
• Artificial intelligence being used to reduce claims rejection by ensuring pre-approval is received.  This new approach is operational for radiology and underway for oncology.  Next 2-3 months will provide more information on success.
• It is expected that the County will use tax dollars in the amount of $82 million to help offset Jail and Public Health Expenses and will pick up another $30 million In pension costs.
• Commission Sean Morrison asked for value of denials and billing errors for years 2018-19.  Also wants capital funding expectations from Cook County CFO.
• Projecting a $187 million deficit for 2021 due to personnel, overtime, and pharmacy costs.
• The new Medicare enrollment plan, More Care, is expected to help increase Medicare revenues by $7.4 million.
• Provident Hospital rebuild on hold until new CEO in place.
• CCH Board President expects CEO search to produce 1-2 finalists in the next few weeks.

Independent Inspector General -– Patrick Blanchard
Revenues – N/A
Expenses - $1,043 million YTD budgeted vs $882,545 actual.  Down 15.3%
Holdback Target:   $120,824.  met.
FY 2021 Budget Target:    $1,726,849

Information of Interest

• Did not hire 2 investigators as part of his hold back target and another new hire will start in August.
• Provides services to Cook County, Forest Preserve, and the MWRD.  Exceptions: States Attorney, Chief Justice, and Clerk of the Court
• Used Micro-Soft Teams to good advantage and will incorporate in future operations.  May save on space.
• Noted that since its inception the IG office has consistently had its staff reduced from a high of 20 to the current number of 14 including 2 MWRD investigators.  Blanchard is now doing the complaint triage work previously handled by his deputy who left and has not been replaced.
• Complaints are up about 25% from 2019.  Projecting 800 for 2020 [includes MWRD].
• With the projected cuts in the 2021 budget, Blanchard does not expect his office can be prepared to provide the coverage needed.
• Produces 60 OIG summary reports a year and receives 350 inquires/complaints.
• The OIG has one full-time harassment investigator who is busy but not “crushed” with work.

Public Administrator -– Louis Apostol
Revenues – Up $539,328 or 82.9%.  YTD Budget $650,000 vs YTD Actual $1,189,328
Expenses -  Down $7,129 or 1.07%.  YTD Budget $666,922 vs YTD Actual $658,922
Holdback -   No.
Fiscal 2021 Budget Target:   $1,259,749.    2020 Budget is $1,344,605

Information of Interest

• In explanation of the holdback:  “The office will have generated over $2,865,112 in fees, interest, court costs, and funds for unknown heirs.  Our 2020 budget is $1,344,605.  At the close of Q3 2020, the fees alone will have generated $1,169,933 to the county treasurer.  This office estimates a year-end total of $1,827,331 in revenue which represents $527,331 over the expense amount appropriated for FY 2020.”
• The office assists the public in administering probate estates when a CC resident passes away without family to manage the liquidation and distribution of his/her assets.  It also aids the public and the Medical Examiner’s Office in location of family for unclaimed remains and homes that would otherwise be abandoned.
• The office has a staff of 15 plus the Public Administrator who is a 1099 employee.

Secretary to the Board of Commissioners - Matthew DeLeon       
Revenues:  N/A
Expenses:  Down $90,636 or 10%.   YTD Budget is $932,617 vs YTD Actual of $84,981
Holdback:   $112,707.  Met.
Fiscal 2021 Budget Target:  $1,745,747

Information of Interest​

• A new Manager of Archives has been hired, and the Secretary intends to bring an Ordinance governing the archives in the fall.
• January 2021 is the 190th Birthday of the County for which the board has instituted a flag design contest for the students of the county.  The contest deadline has been extended to September 2020, and the semi-finalists will be picked in October.  The presentation of the flag is projected for spring/summer 2021.
• The Secretary stated that the Board is not likely to be coming back to the conference room any time soon.
• Sims reminded the Board and the Secretary that the current board room needs to be made ADA accessible.  
• Secretary hopes to significantly expand the conference room in addition to making it ADA accessible when resources are available.

Cook County Sheriff - Tom Dart
Revenue: $6,797,999
Expenses:$284,937,121
Holdback:$25,413,144
Target Holdback;$38,884,424

Sheriff Dart appeared early and ran late at the Midyear Budget Hearings. Some Commissioners called it “extra innings” and other baseball analogies. But the Sheriff had much to say and the Commissioners had many questions. His session ran approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. Although there was some repetition, the Sheriff and the Commissioners are very concerned as his department might be facing $90 million in cuts from his current $600 million budget.

Some Highlights from the Sheriff’s Remarks:

•  The Sheriff began his remarks by stating he was perfectly “on budget’ until March when Covid hit.
• In March, due to Covid, he had to hire new people  (he said about 200) to open up , clean and staff long closed divisions in order to spread out the population. He also tests each detainee upon entry and quarantines them for 2 weeks. All of this has increased his need for personnel costs, including overtime.
• He also has 1000 more people on Electronic Monitoring (EM) as judges are trying to not put more people in the jail.  His jail population is about 4900, and his EM population is about 3300, both are up from
• He also has about 500 Illinois Dept. of Corrections’ inmates who have been sentenced, but are not being placed in prisons, due to Covid. On the positive side he has freed up some sheriff’s deputies who have not been serving evictions. But as the courts reopen, these deputies may go back to those duties.
• The Sheriff also talked at length about the other duties he has taken on recently. He named 3 South Suburbs that his police have been working with in a supplemental capacity (Dolton, Harvey, and Riverdale). He has also been supplementing the CPD on the West and South sides of Chicago during the protests.
• In addition he runs many mental health programs, mentoring programs for youth, job training programs, and opioid addiction treatment programs both in and out of the jail. He has trained his officers in crisis intervention and in the use of naloxone treatments, he said. For these reasons he will be having trouble cutting his budget.

Some Highlights from the Commissioners’ Questions and Comments:

• Many Commissioners congratulated him and asked detailed questions about testing, distancing and tracing. He said that as of July 20 he had only 16 cases that were positive, 10 of which came in that way. All detainees are tested upon entry and isolated for 2 weeks, no matter what the test results may be.
• Commissioner Suffredin asked for a list of all of the programs that sheriff’s deputies are involved with and the costs of each. The Sheriff said he would get that information.
• Commissioner Anaya asked about how the Sheriff planned to cut $90 million from his budget. He mentioned 3 ways: 

1. He hoped to cut staff through attrition. But he warned the board not to be too generous in the next          union contract talks since he is not part of those negotiations.
2. Branch courts could be closed (like Bridgeview and Rolling Meadows). He would then need to staff less officers in the court houses.
3. He could cut all transportation from the jail to the outlying courts for simple hearings that take 1 or 2 minutes. These could be done remotely. He would save the transportation costs for trials, plea bargaining, sentencing, etc.

• Commissioner Johnson asked about administrative costs. The Sheriff said a full review took place a few years ago in order to cut these. It was unclear if more could be cut. The Commissioner also asked for a list of school related programs that the deputies are involved with and their costs, such as those at Proviso and Richards high schools.

Observers - Diane Edmundson and Jan Goldberg 

Cook County Board of Commissioners - Finance Committee
Departmental Budget Hearings
October 30, 2019, afternoon session

Cook County Sheriff

Overview of Proposed Budget for Sheriff's Office

• As outlined in the Proposed Budget Book, expenditures remain very near 2019 figures, including FTE count and salaries - no raises expected.
• Sheriff’s Office will continue to focus on reducing violent crime in areas most at risk.
• A Community Corrections Dept. has been created to increase transparency for Electronic Monitoring.
• RENEW AND SWAP Programs will be continued
• Non-Union job titles will be updated to clarify their duties and responsibilities.
• The $7M now available in the operating budget due to reductions in the Jail population and facilities has been used to replace high mileage marked and unmarked police vehicles ($5M) and $2M for various other programs.

Sheriff Dart stressed that he strongly believes in analyzing people’s needs and then implementing programs to meet them, rather than just incarcerating.  The goal should be on preparing offenders to successfully function in the community, he said.  After discussing the budget for 15-20 minutes, he focused on questions from the Commissioners and the numerous programs currently available at Cook County Jail.

PROGRAMS

• RENEW -formerly an unsuccessful “boot camp” program. It is now reconfigured to use inmates to do demolition work such as removing fixtures, tearing down walls in old buildings, etc.  Not only does program provide training, but receives money from sale of iron/copper/wiring and such. Workers can participate while in jail and up to 6 months after return home.
• FEMALE COOKING PROGRAM - Privately funded.  This was an idea suggested by the women residents and has proved very successful.
• FATHER & SON GET-TOGETHERS – Play chess and other board games while visiting.
• There are many other programs at the jail ranging from photography to art to yoga.    A Pilot Program is being considered to utilize these programs for offenders on electronic monitoring while living at home, making use of time to prepare for life after release.

ELECTRONIC MONITORING

• The question of cost for electronic monitors was discussed. There are currently approximately 2,300 offenders on electronic monitoring.  700 alarms go off every day, and these have to be investigated.  Taking out the garbage, being late in returning home from work due to transportation issues, faulty wiring can set off the alarms.  Phone calls and home visits are sometimes required.  This is a labor intensive and costly procedure. 
• Another issue discussed was solitary confinement. THERE IS NO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AT COOK COUNTY.  Offenders are out of cells at least 4 hours a day, outside if possible.  They are ankle chained to a table with other inmates to enable conversation and group interaction, board games and such.  Dart emphasized, this is a jail, not a prison.
• RECIDIVISM- Sheriff Dart stated 3,000 of the jail population require mental health care.  While incarcerated, they receive these services; however, when released into the community, mental health services are scarce, and unfortunately, after 3-6 months, many former residents return.  

THE FUTURE –

• The Sheriff intends to increase focus on domestic violence, affordable housing, and services for the LGBT communities.  Asked if the legalization of marijuana will have an impact on incarceration, he did not think so, except possibly an increase in DUI.
• The hearing ended after 2 hours when Sheriff’s staff brought in 2 therapy dogs.  

​Observer: Carole Cotter