1 in 8 La Salle County inmates are supposed to be in prison

“This is getting to be a problem as inmates become restless and start to have behavior issues knowing they are waiting to go to DOC.”

—  La Salle County Jail Superintendent Jason Edgcomb

Steven Willett is supposed to be serving 20 years in prison for robbery. Joshua Salters got four years for dealing cocaine; but he’s not in prison, either. Miguel Alvarado should be in for 14 years after killing a woman in a drug-related crash.

None of them has been transported to the Illinois Department of Corrections. All have spent weeks or months languishing in La Salle County Jail — Willett was sentenced on Oct. 8 — and it’s because the DOC won’t take them.

Jason Edgcomb is superintendent of La Salle County Jail and he’s getting frustrated. One in every eight of the county’s 175 inmates was supposed to have been shipped off by now.

“This is getting to be a problem as inmates become restless and start to have behavior issues knowing they are waiting to go to DOC,” Edgcomb said. “Also, several of the inmates have severe medical issues costing the county a lot of money to continue to care for them.”

IDOC released data showing the agency there were 55 intakes from La Salle County Jail since Aug. 3, though intakes were halted in December 2020 because of a COVID-19 outbreak at the jail.

“The Illinois Department of Corrections is committed to safely admitting as many men and women from the counties as possible,” said Lindsey Hess, public information officer for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

“Intakes are scheduled based on space availability, quarantine requirements and COVID-19 test results,” Hess said. “We have been accepting transfers from county jails since Aug. 3, 2020, and have processed 6,251 new admissions and 877 turnarounds to date. The Department developed aggressive guidelines to conduct transfers as safely as possible.”

Edgcomb said the problem is that IDOC is taking admissions intermittently and at a pace that isn’t sustainable for La Salle County, which prior to the pandemic was transporting an inmate to prison once a week on average.

Last week, officers transported five women (three of them were housed at the request of Bureau County) to prison and that was the first trip to the women’s prison since the pandemic. Only one group of men has been transported so far this year.

Edgcomb said he’s spoken with peers at other county jails and they report the same issue. He further noted IDOC has lifted its prohibition on visits at some facilities yet continues to halt admissions. It is an incongruous policy, he said, and he suspects IDOC is using COVID-19 as an excuse to keep down both its census and its costs by letting the counties incur the costs of housing inmates.

Those costs frequently include medical care, as well. Court records show Alvarado, arrested after three years on the lam, arrived with significant health issues. Alvarado applied for the public defender and completed a required affidavit showing medical bills in excess of $10,000.

State Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa) issued a statement urging the IDOC to take immediate steps to alleviate the backlog.

“At a time when we already ask so much of our local law enforcement, we cannot afford to add a backlog of inmates at our local jails to their list,” Yednock said. “So as vaccination rates increase, the Illinois Department of Corrections needs to start accepting inmates held at local county jails.

“We see this problem here in La Salle County and statewide, as well.”