Letter: Keep them in Chicago

Bureau County Sheriff Jim Reed went to the Bureau County Board with a proposal suggesting filling the county jail with inmates from the infamous Cook County Jail in Chicago.

According to the newspaper story of a couple of weeks ago his reason for this “opportunity” is that fortunately the population at the jail is or has been lower than capacity and by bringing in Chicago’s “best” would generate revenue for the county. His justification for this is that there would be money coming in from Cook County, which could be used for maintenance of the jail (it shouldn’t need much upkeep as it was just retrofitted a couple of years ago) and the food contract for the inmates' meals would be more realistically in line with the jail population (it sounds like more money is paid the vendor than what is needed to feed the inmates). Another point brought up in the newspaper article was that the sheriff would have money available to put more patrolmen on the county’s roads. (I was in the courthouse last week and there were three uniformed deputies watching as I went through the detection mechanism).

Several years ago I was at a religious retreat in Moline. The pastor of one of the Lutheran churches there told me that Moline was a nice community until the state of Illinois built the prison at East Moline. From that time on families and friends of those incarcerated would come to visit. They would drive around and see a nice medium-size town and some would decide to rent or buy a home in the Moline area near their person “serving time.” When that happened the Moline community became a haven for drugs, robberies, car-jacking and murder.

The people of Bureau county DON’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN HERE. I wrote a letter to each Bureau County Board member pleading that they VOTE AGAINST bringing in Cook County’s “overflow.”

My wife, Loretta, served with honesty, dignity, intelligence, faithfullness and a sincere interest in the people of Bureau County and the betterment of the county for 16 years. Unfortunately, now she is enduring dementia. But she also AGAINST Sheriff Reed’s proposal.

If you are AGAINST loading Bureau county Jail with Chicago‘s residue contact your Bureau County Board member and let them know.

Dick Volker, of Princeton