» Campbell: New law crowds jail

PRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell is calling for action after he said mentally unfit inmates are not getting the attention their status requires.

In January 2023, the Illinois Legislature passed, and Governor Pritzker signed into law a bill allowing the Illinois Department of Human Services to extend the amount of time mentally unfit inmates are allowed to remain in jails prior to being moved to facilities.

The bill was HB 240 from the 102nd General Assembly, which passed during the lame duck session in January of 2023.

Previously the law required DHS to identify a mental treatment facility within 20 days of the declaration for the inmate to be transferred to.The 20 day requirement was changed to 60 days, with the ability for DHS to renew the hold every 30 days. Sheriff Campbell said this potentially allows inmates to remain in county jails into perpetuity.

“We are simply at the mercy of the state of Illinois, that they find a facility for these inmates and it leaves us in a very bad position,” said Sheriff Campbell. “These inmates can be dangerous to themselves and to our staff and to other inmates and all we can do is live with it and it’s not right. It’s not fair to the inmates. They’re the ones that need this type of treatment.”

In Sangamon County, since January 1, 2023, Campbell said 26 inmates have remained in custody beyond the 60-day requirement, accumulating 1,302 total days in custody beyond the 60 days in statute. In addition to not having the mental health resources for these patients, county officials cannot give inmates medication to improve their health.

“The State of Illinois can force medications and the medications fixed many of these inmates, we cannot force medications on them,” said Sheriff Campbell. “So the longer they sit here and linger in our custody they actually deteriorate, their mental health condition gets worse because they’re not getting that medication.”

WAND reached out to DHS about these issues in county facilities. They said on average in the state, inmates awaiting transfers to state mental health facilities are in county custody for 62 days. Right now, Sangamon County has 7 of these inmates awaiting transport, and they have been in the Sangamon County jail for an average of 68 days.

“It’s always about having beds available,” said Dr. Sharon Coleman, the Deputy Director of Forensic and Justice Services for DHS. “We discharge individuals from our hospitals in order to admit the next person on the list. So you know, it’s not as if any of our hospitals are sitting with empty staffed beds, or that we’re just sort of taking our time getting admissions.”

Dr. Coleman said the state has struggled to keep up with an uptick in inmates needing care and trying to expand capacity. Inmates are transferred first based on need, then based on how long they’ve been in county custody since being declared unfit to stand trial.

“We are working as quickly as we can to operationalize all our capacity, increase our staffing resources to run our hospitals and to expand out outpatient services where clinically appropriate,” said Dr. Coleman. “We are doing all of this simultaneously and we have been able to move the needle, but obviously we haven’t been able to move the needle far enough or quickly enough.”

Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman told WAND “the average amount of time between when an inmate is remanded to DHS custody by the court and when they are transported to DHS is 90 days. They spend that time in jail. I currently have 9 inmates in my custody that have been remanded to DHS but are waiting on beds. Unfortunately, we are forced to work on DHS’s timeline.”

A representative with the Macon County Sheriff said they are collecting their data on inmates awaiting DHS transfers and will contact WAND when those statistics are available.

In June of 2022, Sheriff Campbell, through State’s Attorney Dan Wright, filed a lawsuit against Gov. Pritzker and DHS for the continued violation of the statute requiring the transfer. DHS was held in contempt for the violation of the law.