Gottemoller Reports on Convention

This was sent to those on the McHenry County Board’s email list:

Greetings From the Chairman

Joe Gottemoller

Joe Gottemoller

I recently attended the National Associations of Counties Annual Conference and Exposition.

A major theme this year was the need for counties to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jails.

Counties across the country are taking steps to provide treatment and support to people with mental illness to decrease their exposure to the criminal justice system.

Justice and public safety – sheriffs, corrections, court systems – are responsible for effective jail management by adhering to practices that protect the public without criminalizing mental illness.

There have been a number of different studies over the years, producing similar but not identical results.

A credible figure would be that about 20% of jail inmates nationwide have an identifiable mental illness. For McHenry County, with a daily population of roughly 350 inmates per day (both from local arrests and federal contract prisoners), that would translate to about 70 individuals.

I am pleased to report McHenry County probation officers will receive training inintegrated behavioral intervention strategies with the goal to cut recidivism rates.

The target is to reduce the number of people in jail who are mentally ill, and/or low-risk, nonviolent offenders.

Through behavioral intervention strategies, we can reduce the size of our jail population while maintaining safe and secure communities.

According to Mr. Walt Pesterfield, Director of Court Services and Probation,

“people who commit violent crimes or are dangerous to society need to be incarcerated, however for those offenders who do not fit in that category, we can do a better job modifying behaviors on the local level, have better long-term outcomes that cost the taxpayer considerably less than the prison system.”

I encourage you to read more about the training in the article below. [Published here on McHenry County Blog.]

The incarceration of people with mental illness can have severe consequences for all of us.

McHenry County is choosing to take a proactive approach by improving the coordination of agencies and services to give mentally ill populations the resources and skill to become functioning members of society.

This endeavor promotes the well-being of people with mental illness and efficient use of funding.


Comments

Gottemoller Reports on Convention — 4 Comments

  1. To explain the comment above:

    Joe Gottmoller was an attorney for the corporation that was trying to put a massive power plant in the middle of a residential area.

    It failed because the local community organized against it, protested, and voted out the politicians who were working with Joe Gottmoller to put a massive power plant in the middle of a residential area.

    Though he was paid well, the experience appears to have left Joe with a deep hostility toward local community organization, because he’s currently trying to eliminate Townships in McHenry County…

  2. A major theme around here would be to eliminate the mental illness that has run roughshod over the local taxpayers.

  3. If Franks runs and Joe is the only competition, McHenry GOP will be further relegated to the ‘dustbin’ of politics.

    Franks is a ‘professional’ politician – Joe and the current County GOP has no clue how play that ‘game’.

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