UNION COUNTY CLOSES JAIL, SAYS TOO COSTLY

JONESBORO -- Union County has closed its 68-year-old jail because it couldn't meet state standards and was a costly liability.

The decision came as the state was threatening to take legal action to close it.

The Illinois Department of Corrections inspected the county jail in the last few weeks and was ready to recommend legal action, Union County State's Attorney Wes Wilkins said Thursday.

County voters will be asked Nov. 8 to approve the creation of a building commission to look at the feasibility of building a new jail.

Meanwhile, the county has entered into a three-year agreement to house its prisoners in the Jackson County Jail at Murphysboro at a cost of $35 a day per inmate.

Sheriff Robin Dillon closed the jail Wednesday night and sent its four inmates to the Jackson County Jail after county commissioners announced that funds being used to keep the jail open would be cut off within 30 days.

County Commissioner Lee Roy Rendleman cited increased liability and "numerous state mandates" as reasons for cutting off the funding.

He said a recent insurance settlement over a suicide at the jail was a key factor in closing the facility.

In February 1993, a 33-year-old Anna man committed suicide in his cell.

The man hanged himself with a bed sheet tied around a towel rack attached to the cell wall.

The man's family filed a $28 million lawsuit against Union County and the city of Cobden. The man had been arrested by Cobden police.

Union County is part of a three-county, self-insurance pool.

The insurance board agreed Monday to a $250,000 settlement. The city of Cobden will pay $2,500, with the insurance pool picking up the rest.

"It puts us in a liability position we can't afford to be in," Rendleman said. "By settling it, we were more or less admitting liability."

He said the county had no choice but to close the jail.

The closing of the jail is a "severe blow," Wilkins said.

"It is complicating the prosecution of criminals, no question about that."

He said judges will be more likely to look at alternatives to jail sentences because of the lack of a county jail and the cost of transporting prisoners to other facilities.

The jail was built in 1926 and remodeled in 1973.

"They spent several hundred thousand dollars to do that," Wilkins said.

The jail originally occupied space on both floors of the two-story, brick structure. But when it was remodeled, the second floor was converted exclusively to office space for the sheriff's department.

The remodeled jail was equipped to handle eight prisoners.

But even that was often impossible because of state standards that require segregation of those who are convicted from those facing trial, and those charged with felonies from those charged with misdemeanors.

A number of cells in the jail were also kept open for those serving periodic or weekend sentences, Wilkins said.

Union County averages 14 to 15 prisoners a day, most of which are housed in jails in neighboring counties.

The county has had to ship out most of its prisoners for the past year or two.

The county has been spending about $100,000 a year on housing prisoners in other jails.

Wilkins said some standards simply can't be met in the old jail. "It is not cost effective."

The building can't meet requirements for indoor recreation and day-area space for prisoners, Wilkins said.

While the jail doesn't meet state standards, it isn't a case of a deteriorating building.

"If you come in and look at the jail right now, you are not going to see a facility that looks like something you would see in the Old West," Wilkins said.