Since 2009, Kane County has made as much as $2.5 million a year holding federal prisoners awaiting trial, but the deal could be in jeopardy with the U.S. Marshal's office poised to move about half the inmates.
But details on the arrangement possibly coming to an end are not forthcoming from the man in charge of the county jail, newly elected Sheriff Don Kramer, who did not return repeated phone calls, emails and Facebook messages on Wednesday and Thursday.
Some county leaders, who say they would like to preserve the deal, confirmed they had heard Kramer planned to end the six-year-old agreement that makes the county $88.32 each day for each federal detainee it holds in the county jail in St. Charles.
"I can't tell you why the sheriff made that move," county board member Drew Frasz said. "It would have been standard protocol to have a lengthy discussion about a decision like this."
Frasz and others said they were stunned by the prospect of giving up the added income from use of the jail.
"From a taxpayers' point of view, if you have an asset, why not make it a revenue-generating asset?" he said.
Managing these prisoners costs the county overtime, but the arrangement still nets about $2.5 million a year, which county leaders have used to fund such projects as a new shooting range and a law enforcement regional training center that opened last year.
The U.S. Marshal's office was going to take back about half of the detainees from the Kane County jail this week, said Sheriff's Lt. Pat Gengler.
He could not specify how many detainees were being moved, or to where.
County board Chairman Chris Lauzen deferred all inquiries about the agreement's status to Kramer, but insisted the sheriff was working to overcome the "bump in the road."
"They're going to be working on making sure we continue as in the past. It's a little premature at this point because we really don't know where it stands right now," Lauzen said. "(Kramer's) taken various actions and he would need to describe them."
Messages left Wednesday and Thursday with Belkis Sandoval, spokeswoman and special inspector at the U.S. Marshal's office in Chicago, were not returned.
Word that the agreement could be ending -- along with the loss of $2.5 million, or about 10 percent of the sheriff's budget -- surfaced at the county board's executive committee this week and caught members by surprise.
County board member Cristina Castro said she was "a little flabbergasted" by the potential loss of revenue.
Frasz said he expected such a major decision would create more discussion, especially because the county has worked to keep the county's tax levy flat from year to year.
Lauzen predicted board members would further discuss the U.S. Marshal's agreement at the county's judicial and public safety committee next Thursday.
The practice of housing federal detainees at local county jails while they await trial has been tried in other counties.
One example is DuPage County, where Sheriff John Zaruba inked a deal with the U.S. Marshal's office in 2003 to house federal detainees for about $107 per day per inmate.
At the time, about 55 federal inmates were at the jail in DuPage. But the practice ended after the DuPage jail in Wheaton filled up with the county's own defendants.
"When we contracted with the U.S. Marshals (in 2003) they brought in a more stable clientele because they tended to be longer-term clients which made it easier on staffing," Zaruba said. "But that only lasted for a year or two because the jail started filling up with judges putting more prisoners in. The deal became less attractive to the marshals because they wanted their inmates bulk-housed, but we no longer had the jail space to do that."
Kane Co. could lose $2.5 million if federal prisoner deal ends - DailyHerald.com
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