Task Force asks what next?

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PRINCETON — The Jail Task Force will ask the Bureau County Board for more direction as to just what the board wants done with the county jail. At Thursday’s meeting, Jail Task Force Chairman Joe Bertetto gave an overview of the four-day PONI training in Colorado attended last week by Bertetto, Bureau County Sheriff John Thompson, and Bureau County Board members Dale Anderson and Kristi Warren, who also serve on the jail task force.

That review will again be presented by Bertetto at the Sept. 9 county board meeting.

Bertetto said he would like the county board to project a dollar amount for a new jail. With that dollar amount in mind, the task force could be more focused in its direction, specifically as to what can and cannot be built with that amount of money, Bertetto said.

The PONI training, as well as the July 8-10 assessment of the county jail and justice system by National Institute of Corrections consultants, provided lots of good information, but the task force still needs more financial direction from the county board, Bertetto said.

The options for the county board remain the same as before, Bertetto said. The county could renovate the current jail, build a new jail, close the jail and take prisoners to another county, or do nothing.

As far as the size needed for a new jail, the task force does not have the needed information to make a good projection, Bertetto said. The county does not have the necessary system or computer program in place to provide that data. That research would have to be done manually, which would be a very extensive and time-consuming project.

Bertetto said he is not being critical of Sheriff John Thompson, rather simply stating the system is not in place.

Princeton Mayor Keith Cain, who serves on the task force, said the county needs to be proactive and get the system in place now to keep track of needed information.

“If we are outdated, we can’t continue to stay that way,” Cain said. “Realistically, we’re not going to build a new jail next year, so let’s get some kind of system in place now to track the information we need from this point on. In this day and age of technology, there’s got to be ways to get this done.”

Building a new jail, if the county board goes in that direction, would likely not happen for another six years, task force member Kristi Warren said.

In his opinion, there are three main concerns which he sees for the task force, Bertetto said. First of all, the needed information, to project the size for a new jail, is not available. Second, there appears to be minimal communication between Sheriff John Thompson and the county board. Third, the task force needs a county board buy-in and support for a new jail project, if that’s the direction the county board wants.

As far as paying for a new jail, task force member Dale Anderson said the county does have the new public safety sales tax, but the sheriff’s department isn’t the only department wanting that money. Without a growth in the county’s population, the safety sales tax will only amount to so much and will get eaten up fast, Anderson said.

At this point, the cost of a new jail is estimated at between $10 million and $15 million.

Task Force member Kevin Knudsen said he thinks the county board, as a whole, is looking more at fixing the current jail, rather than building a new one.

A financial assessment of the county, what it can and cannot afford, has to be done, Bertetto said. But that assessment cannot realistically be completed until the current Austin Wells lawsuit is settled against the county. The wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit was filed in June against the county, sheriff and two correctional officers by the estate and parents of Austin Wells in federal court in Peoria. Wells, then 17, of Dover committed suicide in June 2007 while a prisoner in the county jail.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the task force reviewed some of the needs and problems at the current site, including safety issues, inadequate cell space for inmates, the lack of exercise, educational, counseling programs for inmates, and a need for an operations policy and procedure manual.

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