Short-Staffed Lake County Jail Deemed 'Insufficient' By Sheriff

WAUKEGAN, IL — Facing a staffing crisis at Lake County Jail, Sheriff John Idleburg has arranged a deal with McHenry County Sheriff Robb Tadelman to shuffle inmates from Waukegan to Woodstock.

Starting next week, the McHenry County Jail is set to temporarily house up to 150 detainees under a sheriff-to-sheriff agreement that bypasses their respective county boards.

While Idleburg notified the Lake County administrator's office that the jail was "insufficient" in early September of last year, and board members in McHenry County approved a resolution authorizing an intergovernmental agreement with their neighbors to the east at their November meeting, the deal never made it to the Lake County Board's agenda.

According to Chris Covelli, deputy chief of the Lake County Sheriff's Office, the IGA was repeatedly removed from the agenda of the Law and Justice Committee by county government leadership. A spokesperson for Lake County government did not respond to an inquiry about the matter, forwarding it to the sheriff's office instead.

Nonetheless, staffing at the jail is seemingly stretched thinner than a cheap suit, threatening to leave the safety of both inmates and officers hanging by a thread.

The corrections division would have about 212 officers if it were fully staffed, Covelli said. Instead, when considering vacant positions and officers currently on leave, it is down to about 70 correctional officers.

According to the resolution approved by the McHenry County board last fall, Idleburg has determined that a "severe correction officer staffing shortage places [undue] risk to the current staff and inmates," and that "Lake County as a result has an emergency need for alternative housing of prisoners."

The resolution said the two sheriffs had already come to terms over the policies and procedures of the detainee transfer and the agreement had already been renewed by the state's attorneys of both counties.

Idleburg said in a statement that he was very grateful for the help provided by Tadelman and his team.

"I cannot praise my correctional employees enough for all they’ve done during this staffing shortage," Idleburg said.

"We will continue working toward filling staffing vacancies and I will continue advocating to Lake County leaders that increased pay for corrections staff, retention and sign-on bonuses are essential to recruiting and retaining high-quality employees,” he added.

The Illinois Prison Act requires sheriffs to give notice to their county boards whenever they deem their "jail insufficient to secure the prisoners confined therein."

And after that, they can move inmates to the nearest available jail.

Under the one-year agreement, which could be extended to up to two years or terminated at any time, Lake County will pay $100 per day for each guest inmate, while McHenry County correctional staff will play chauffeur, shuttling inmates to and fro and ensuring they show up for court.

Idleburg is betting that the money saved on overtime, food and medical care for the out-of-county inmates will balance the books, so his office is not likely to incur any additional final costs.

The Lake County inmates bunking in McHenry County will be able to meeting with their lawyers through Zoom, face-to-face or via phone calls. They will also have the same opportunities to communicate with anyone else, court orders permitting, as they do in Waukegan, according to Covelli.

There were a little over 600 prisoners in Lake County Jail this week, down from a peak of more than 800 over the summer prior to the elimination of monetary bail of the Pretrial Fairness Act.

"I'm happy and honored to assist Sheriff Idleburg and the Lake County Sheriff's Office of housing inmates in their time of need," Tadelman said in a statement. "The McHenry County Sheriff's Office is committed to working with our local law enforcement partners to assure the mission of safety is not lost."