Winnebago County Jail: History, Operation, and local Issues
This area is devoted to a discussion of the issues, history, and personalities surrounding the existence and operation of the Winnebago County Jail, located in Rockford, IL.
The Winnebago County Jail tends to fly below the news radar most of the time. Any media stories generally concern the cost of it’s operations and the level of it’s personnel staffing, because the Winnebago County which operates it has been short on funds for a number of years. Not much local interest is devoted to any publicity about the conditions of the jail and how it’s inmates are treated. Issues do exist within the jail common to other county lock-ups and the State prsion system, and we encourage readers and those who have been inside it to comment here and describe their experience with the Winnebago County Jail. Education goes a long way to bringing public awareness to economic and social ramifications of incarceration and how it is handled on the local level.
At the bottom is a brief chronology of events important to history of the county jail; and the overcrowding in the Rockford,IL/old Winnebago County jail which led to a federal lawsuit on jail conditions and ultimately to the construction in 2003 of the new Winnebago County Jail, (or the new Justice Center, as it is referred to). Other information about the jail follows above.
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Inside the jail:
“Winnebago County Jailhouse Blues”
The jail and medical/services:
Attempts to improve jail medical services
Medical services at the jail have traditionally been limited to providing simple medications, aspirin, weak vitamins, and pulling teeth. Jails are finding themselves exposed to greater liability for medical issues these days at the same time that medical coverage options are expanding for the general public. County jails, including Winnebago are trying to connect inmates with public resources to offset costs.
Jail Hospice for terminal inmates
The Winnebago County Jail is not equipped to handle the majority of serious medical conditions. Winnebago County so far does not differentiate in it’s incarceration policy for inmates with serious illnesses versus other inmates as it deals with older inmates and less healthy individuals.
Example of past jail medical issues
Media attention to Jail staffing issues
The Rockford Register-Star and local media continually focus on publicizing the jail correctional officer pay and staffing issues, especially in connection with local elections, without paying much attention to inmate jail conditions
Holding down jail population and staff wages:
Sometimes there are lags in transferring inmates to IDOC
Current union correctional officer wage issues
Winnebago County has tossed around alternative ideas to holding people in the County jail for years. Ideas such as GPS consideration seem to be discussed when jail overcrowding is in the news but the County never seems to carry through on these plans.
So, now the jail is not overcrowded
County comment on population drop
The Ebb and flow of Jail overcrowding
Jail overcrowding created the mandate that permitted Winnebago County to build the new criminal justice center in 2003. The old Winnebago County jail was decrepit and overcrowded. Poor jail conditions routinely existed there which were mostly resolved with the construction of the new jail. Yet, since it’s inception, new issues of current jail overcrowding have still been raised in the media, particularly at election times. It is a matter of opinion as to what degree of control recent efforts to move inmates more quickly through the local court system play in the level of jail population numbers at any one time versus county staffing allocation and funding decisions. Jail population numbers appear to be more connected to local politics and whether the County or union want the public to perceive it as a public safety issue deserving of greater funding at any one time.
General Issues:
Jail Construction and Upgrades
A perspective on the inmates and jail costs
Jail costs are a sore point for Winnebago County and ideas are always suggested on ways that the County should shift some of the burden to jail inmates. So far, however, the County is unable to come up with workable ways to do this.
Jail History:
Chronology of the Winnebago County Jail
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