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.
Good going, Cal!!!
I’ve been wondering just how much the County Jail rakes in from the money machine in the lobby and on the concessions it peddles to its captive audience.
I believe the money machine is a payment vehicle for collecting bond money from ATM and credit cards, and either it or a separate machine accepts deposits into inmate or detainee commissary accounts for a $5.00 service charge. How much does the Jail earn on that $5.00 fee?
Price-gouging is the only word I can use to describe the pricing of candy bars and other commissary items. Of all the jails and prisons in Illinois, only the McHenry County Jail uses http://www.mycarepack.com/ Check out the candy bar pricing: $1.60 (and you can’t even read what size)! And how big is the kickback on the $5.00 service charge for internet deposits into a prisoner’s account?