Vince Gaddis

The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network continues to bring provocative programs to Crystal Lake.

The next one will be bout privatized prisons, to be held on March 4th.

I wonder if the local version of this phenomenon will be discussed.

What’s that?

The Sheriff’s Department’s making money by housing illegal immigrants on the top floor of the county jail.

The press release is below:

MCC’S STUDENT PEACE GROUP TO HOST EVENT

ON PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

[Feb. 23, 2010.Crystal Lake, IL]  The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) will host an informational seminar featuring Dr. Vincent Gaddis on March 4th, 2010 at 7:00pm in the College’s Conference Center.  The event is titled

“The United States: Leading Jailer of the World.”

According to Human Rights Watch, the United States incarcerates more people than any country in the world, including the far more populous nation of China.  In 2008, the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults, China was second with 1.5 million and Russia a distant third.

The United States leads not only by the sheer number of inmates but in the rate at which it incarcerates its citizenry, outpacing nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia.  In Germany, 93 people are in prison for every 100,000 adults and children whereas in the United States, the rate is eight times higher or 750 per 100,000.

As incredible as it sounds, 1 in 100 adults are now locked up in America and for Hispanic and black men, imprisonment is far more prevalent.  Dr. Gaddis will analyze the structural flaws within our system that lead to these astounding statistics.

Imprisonment has become the answer to many of the social problems rooted in poverty.

The practice of locking up the poor from racially marginalized communities has become big business.

What once was considered government work has increasingly been turned over to private contractors, creating a monstrous “prison industrial complex” whose profit depends on people to punish.

Dr Gaddis calls for a revolution – “a revolution in values.”  He persuasively argues that what we need is not new prisons, but a powerful movement for social transformation in health care, housing, education, drug programs, jobs, and education.

The event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. SPAN is made up of students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education. The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition. The event is free and open to the public.

The college is located at 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.  For more information, contact the MCC Student Activities Office at (815) 455-8772.

Daily Herald reporter Chuck Keeshan wrote a story on Sheriff Keith Nygren’s jail having making it more expensive to give money to inmates and ICE detainees.

McHenry County Blog broke the story last Wednesday.

Keeshan’s article about the complaint of Crystal Lake resident David Warren, who is a member of the Secular Franciscan Order of the Catholic Church has one paragraph that caught my attention:

“Deputy Corrections Chief Patrick Firman said the change was necessary for the jail to abide by state regulations governing how it handles inmates’ money.“

It is true that the Illinois Department of Corrections regulates local county jails. In my experience, this regulator has cost local taxpayers to spend money they would not otherwise have spent.

But, according to DOC Public Information Officer Januari Smith, this is not one of them.

I called her up and asked if this change by the McHenry County Jail had been required by state officials.

“We don’t oversee how they take in money,” she told me.

“We don’t oversee this particular part of a county jail.”

Maybe Firman was referring to a different state regulator.

No story from the Northwest Herald on the subject yet.

An October 26th memo from Sheriff Keith Nygren’s Chief of Corrections Daniel Sedlock announces the imposition of new, higher cost requirements for those wanting to help inmates and detainees financially.

Crystal Laker Dave Warren has been a 10-year, regular visitor and helper of those behind bars. His jail ministry has regularly written checks so the Sheriff’s Department can buy such personal items as soap, shampoo, lotion, and snacks that fit their cultural diet.

“Under the contract, Sheriff Nygren receives a (portion of the purchase price-original word redacted) from the vendor for all (the approximately $15,000 of) commissary purchases…a source of income for our County Jail,” he wrote one one Crystal Lake donor.

“That revenue stream will disappear if we can’t present a lump check.”

The memo that you can see below(click to enlarge) will require such humanitarian people to pay the cost of a money order or a $5 transaction fee for each prisoner or detainee.  The typical amount given each person behind bars is $10.

“It effectively removes the humanitarian aid portion of our ministry leaving only pastoral care,” Warren wrote John Morrison, Assistant Secretary of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“It is impractical for us to buy postal money orders for each destitute refugee/detainee, then address an envelope, and pay 44 cents to mail to each of them. That would be about 1500 money orders, stamps and envelopes annually!”

“For the last 10 or 11 years, we simply list(ed) each detainee’s number and name on lined paper. After each visit, we give the lobby officer this list and our Jail Ministry check made out to McHenry County Jail, i.e., $10 for each person listed,” he wrote a donor.

“For some time now, as a courtesy, we have allowed program volunteers to being in single checks to be distributed to multiple inmate/detainees housed at the McHenry County Jail.

“Unfortunately, because of an ever increasing population as well as a growing number of organizations requesting to place funds on a detainee’s account, this practice has become administratively burdensome for our staff.

“In addition, we continue to be faced with accreditation standards and regulations requiring a strict accounting of these funds and how they are distributed.”

Sedlock announces that the new, more expensive procedures will start on November 1st, five days after the issuance of the memo.

“We surely appreciate the services and support you provide to the inmate/detainees in our custody. We apologize for the inconvenience we know that this will cause some of your, but trust that you will understand our need to make these changes,” Sedlock concludes.

The memo disturbed Crystal Laker Dave Warren, a member of a Catholic religious lay order about which you can read more here and active in the Jail Ministry of McHenry County.

Besides his letter to the Assistant Secretary of ICE, the Crystal Lake resident has written others involved in the ministry, including a Cary  pastor thaking him for “your tithe of $528.27.”

He notes, “There are no administrative costs in this ministry. Even our Home State Bank checking account is free. Be assured that your entire donation to goes directly to recently arrived, destitute detainees held in McHenry County Jail.”

It notes that McHenry County gets $90 per night to house the prisoners.

The “all of your contribution goes to the mission” part of the thank you letter seems destined to be re-written.

In the closing part of his letter, Warren points out that House Bill 4613 “was passed to secure more access time in jails that warehouse ICE detainees. As a result, access for our ministry visits to McHenry County Jail has been expanded from three people to at least five, our available visiting time has almost doubled from one shift to two shifts, and the days have been doubled from bi-monthly to bi-weekly, i.e., from two to four visits each month. We are still restricted from going into the cell blocks as we were allowed to do for many years previously.”

No local official likes being forced by the General Assembly to do something he doesn’t want to. That’s for sure.

Naturally, it was in the shade on the South side of the lake.

The lake was as pure as it ever gets.

No muddy bottom stirred up by the motor boats.

And, there was no need for the “No Swimming” sign erected a couple of years ago at CCAPOA’s Gate 3 Beach in Lakewood. That’s the beach where trailer boaters decided additional boat slips were more important than continuing to let little kids have a small beach at which to swim.

Later the same day, this woman walking her black dog stopped to enjoy the view.

It’s not in McHenry County, but it’s close to the McHenry-Lake County border, so I thought you might be interested.

144 illegal aliens were arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Chicago metropolitan area, defined broadly enough to include Northwestern Indiana. You can read the full release here.

The closest arrests were in Round Lake.

The only raid I remember in McHenry County was at the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn.

We learned of it when a father walked into our legislative office on Manor Road behind the Shell Station on Route 14 with his infant and at least one other pre-school child. He had no idea how to cope. He had been told his wife was already on a bus to Mexico.

Separating a mother from her baby struck me as mighty poor public policy then and still does.

Fortunately my legislative assistant Pete Castillo was there to console and try to help him.

The raid apparently resulted from new management coming in who apparently called the federalies.

They threw a “Worker Appreciation Day” on a Saturday or Sunday, when most were not working.

As my legislative assistant Pete remembers the details,

“…quite a few who had arrived at that point when Holiday Inn was going to have to pay them severance and retirement benefits. (They) decided to give them the ‘cuffed behind your back, Greyhound Cruiser tour’ back to their homeland at the tax-payers expense. It was blatant corporate greed and nothing else.”

About the man I remember seeing with his children, Pete says,

“The man who came in had, if I am not mistaken, 5 children. When he came to the office he brought 3 youngsters. We helped him reunite his children with his wife who was taken in the raid. We set-up an escort (to Mexico) for him as well as for at least 3 other families. We had already helped this man relocate his wife’s stolen SS checks earlier in the year. We made a Mexican grocery store owner in C-Ville repay the stolen money.”

I then asked Pete about why she was receiving Social Security checks. His reply:

“I am not privy to that. All I know is that the checks were stolen from her mailbox by someone that was connected to the grocery store owner in C-ville. I checked with the SS guy you knew in Woodstock. I don’t remember his name. They were legitimate. She was entitled to receive them. It could have been that she was married before to an American. What do I know? I collected all the money that was stolen. I brought the statute which the store owner violated to C-ville and I promised him 10-years for each offense. He paid!”

From this description of what my legislative assistant did, all that comes to mind is he one amazing, not to mention effective, guy!

As someone has said, “The perception of power is power.”

It’s not in McHenry County, but it’s close to the McHenry-Lake County border, so I thought you might be interested.

144 illegal aliens were arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Chicago metropolitan area, defined broadly enough to include Northwestern Indiana. You can read the full release here.

The closest arrests were in Round Lake.

The only raid I remember in McHenry County was at the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn.

We learned of it when a father walked into our legislative office on Manor Road behind the Shell Station on Route 14 with his infant and at least one other pre-school child. He had no idea how to cope. He had been told his wife was already on a bus to Mexico.

Separating a mother from her baby struck me as mighty poor public policy then and still does.

Fortunately my legislative assistant Pete Castillo was there to console and try to help him.

The raid apparently resulted from new management coming in who apparently called the federalies.

They threw a “Worker Appreciation Day” on a Saturday or Sunday, when most were not working.

As my legislative assistant Pete remembers the details,

“…quite a few who had arrived at that point when Holiday Inn was going to have to pay them severance and retirement benefits. (They) decided to give them the ‘cuffed behind your back, Greyhound Cruiser tour’ back to their homeland at the tax-payers expense. It was blatant corporate greed and nothing else.”

About the man I remember seeing with his children, Pete says,

“The man who came in had, if I am not mistaken, 5 children. When he came to the office he brought 3 youngsters. We helped him reunite his children with his wife who was taken in the raid. We set-up an escort (to Mexico) for him as well as for at least 3 other families. We had already helped this man relocate his wife’s stolen SS checks earlier in the year. We made a Mexican grocery store owner in C-Ville repay the stolen money.”

I then asked Pete about why she was receiving Social Security checks. His reply:

“I am not privy to that. All I know is that the checks were stolen from her mailbox by someone that was connected to the grocery store owner in C-ville. I checked with the SS guy you knew in Woodstock. I don’t remember his name. They were legitimate. She was entitled to receive them. It could have been that she was married before to an American. What do I know? I collected all the money that was stolen. I brought the statute which the store owner violated to C-ville and I promised him 10-years for each offense. He paid!”

From this description of what my legislative assistant did, all that comes to mind is he one amazing, not to mention effective, guy!

As someone has said, “The perception of power is power.”

I drove to Gate 15 and saw open water.

The edge of the retreating ice was at Gate 7 Beach at the Gate 9 side.

As I looked out, I noticed the sea gulls first.

It wasn’t too many years ago when Crystal Lake did not have any seagulls.

It was snowing.

Then I noticed a pier caught in the ice flow.

And, to its right, a raft.

So, instead of calling “Lost and Found,” the owners should look at the eastern edge of the lake.

Their missing equipment probably is near the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach by now.

I drove to Gate 15 and saw open water.

The edge of the retreating ice was at Gate 7 Beach at the Gate 9 side.

As I looked out, I noticed the sea gulls first.

It wasn’t too many years ago when Crystal Lake did not have any seagulls.

It was snowing.

Then I noticed a pier caught in the ice flow.

And, to its right, a raft.

So, instead of calling “Lost and Found,” the owners should look at the eastern edge of the lake.

Their missing equipment probably is near the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach by now.

I saw a family out on the ice whose picture I thought you might enjoy.

I saw a family out on the ice whose picture I thought you might enjoy.