Inmate transfer delayed last fall after back and forth between Lake County departments on contract provisions; sheriff “forced” to enter independent agreement

For three months, back and forth between the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the county administration delayed the transfer of inmates from a short-staffed Lake County Jail to another facility as the two county departments tried, and ultimately failed, to arrange the transfer by intergovernmental contract.

Due to vacancies, family and medical leave and other absences, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s corrections division is down nearly 40% of normal staffing levels, according to the department. Staff issues are a nationwide problem for jails and prisons, according to correctional oversight agencies.

With the Lake County jail population hovering around 500 people, the correctional department’s staff shortage created a public safety issue for inmates and staff, said Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Chris Covelli.

The county sheriff’s office pursued an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between Lake County and McHenry County for the housing of inmates at the Woodstock jail, about 35 miles west of Waukegan.

Pursuing an IGA between the counties, Covelli said, was the sheriff’s department following what they understood to be best practices for liability and indemnification. An IGA provides more protection for compensation in the event of any damages or accidents from the agreement, according to Covelli. The McHenry County Board approved the IGA on Nov. 21, 2023.

But the contract never made it before the Lake County Board for consideration.

After multiple attempts by the sheriff’s office to get the IGA on county agendas, the sheriff eventually had to use his statutory authority to initiate a contract with the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office for the inmate transfer.

Covelli said the attempts to present the intergovernmental agreement to the County Board were “stifled” for reasons unknown to the sheriff’s department.

“This was a public safety issue, involving the safety of both inmates we’re responsible for and our staff that we are responsible for,” Covelli said. “So time was of the essence.”

County officials said the contract never advanced to the County Board due to outstanding questions from county staff, but the sheriff’s office said they responded to all inquiries and even prepared a written response to a questionnaire from county administration.

“This was an unbudgeted initiative, it was unplanned, it’s a major change in operations,” said County Administrator Patrice Sutton. “There was a desire to understand the short and long term plans and also what we were going to be doing to make sure that we were trying to alleviate the problem rather than just continue this strategy of having less inmates in our jail.”

Eventually, 150 people were moved from the Waukegan correctional facility to the Woodstock jail starting in early January after the sheriff sought the independent contract with McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.

Setting the agenda

For over a year, staff shortages in the department have been a pressing issue.

Using a direct supervision model, the Waukegan jail places staff and inmates in an open setting for supervision. There are anywhere from 30 to 50 inmates in a pod with one correctional officer, Lake County sheriff officials said the model is challenging and staff-intensive.

With a shortage of correctional officers, there was a significant amount of overtime, with staff having to work multiple consecutive shifts in the jail.

A report on the sheriff’s department’s organization and operations from February 2023 revealed that recruitment of qualified staff should be one of the sheriff’s office’s highest priorities as the department faces critical shortages and pending retirements.

By September, the sheriff’s office informed county administration that some inmates needed to be transferred as the staff shortage reached a critical point, creating a safety concern for inmates and jail staff, Covelli said.

The sheriff’s office drafted the IGA with McHenry County in October, and began requesting the contract be presented to the Lake County Board for consideration.

On four occasions in the fall, the IGA was slated for the county’s Law and Judicial Committee for consideration, but the item was either removed or the meeting was canceled, according to Covelli. The IGA was held back even after multiple meetings with county staff, a written questionnaire and other attempts at collaboration, he added.

During those conversations in the fall, Sutton was serving as chief financial officer for the county. At the time, the county administrator was Gary Gibson. Sutton said she believed Gibson was still seeking additional clarification on the contract, which is why it never made it on a county agenda.

For the December L&J committee meeting, Covelli said the sheriff’s office was asked to answer a questionnaire by county administration. The office only had about 48 hours to respond, according to the deputy chief.

“We were told by the deputy county administrator that answering the questions would create a path forward to the item being placed on the agenda,” Covelli said.  “Frustratingly, the L&J meeting was canceled and the IGA was pulled again from the agenda.”

It was “out of the ordinary” for a county office to be required to submit written questions in advance, Covelli said. This was the only item the sheriff’s office has had pulled from agendas in recent years, he added.

When the item was pulled for the fourth time, Covelli said Sheriff John Idelburg had “no choice” but to utilize the state statute permitting the sheriff to execute a contract with McHenry County Sheriff for the housing of inmates.

County Board Chair Sandy Hart said county operations are “administrator-driven,” meaning the County Board relies on county staff to bring forward items for the board to consider.

When a county department has an item for the County Board’s consideration, the department submits the item – be it contract, bill, grant agreement, et cetera – to the county administration for review.

“I think there’s a perception like ‘oh, I entered it, and therefore it shall be heard,’” Hart said. “Well, that would mean that the county admin wasn’t doing their job either.”

If county administration has questions or concerns with a request, Hart said, then the department will likely hold the item from the agenda until the questions are answered.

Concerns over how the transfer would affect the county’s recently approved budget and public defenders’ operations and access to clients were some of the county administration’s primary questions about the agreement, according to Hart.

“The county board’s operations are the budget and the policies and it’s not our business to get into the sheriff’s operations or another entity’s operations unless it impacts our operations,” Hart said. “Then we ask questions.”

The first three months of the sheriff’s temporary housing contract cost the county $1.68 million. The contract, which covers 150 inmates at $100 per day per inmate for twelve months, could cost the county over $5 million.

Ultimately, it was Gibson, the former county administrator, and his process that determined what did or did not get on the agenda, Sutton said.

In her role as Board Chair, Hart has final approval over agendas and can add time-sensitive items to agendas in concurrence with the committee’s Chair, according to county statute. County board members can also request to add agenda items to the following agenda during board meetings with the consensus of the county board or committee.

During those three months, Sutton said county administration was working on the contract “very diligently” while also trying to flesh out a strategic plan to alleviate the root issues of staffing and recruitment.

Recruitment for new officers, however, remains “the same as before,” officials from the sheriff’s department said at a L&J meeting in February, despite the department entirely revamping their recruitment process this year.

Lake County Chief of Corrections Richard Clouse said competitive wages and benefits would go a long way to help with recruitment and retention.

Best contractual practices

During a late December meeting, Sutton said she was “still very hopeful” that the administration would be taking an intergovernmental agreement to the County Board at the January meeting.

But at that meeting, Sutton said she learned the sheriff opted to move forward with the independent contract.

“I believe (the IGA) was the original intended form of entering into this agreement with McHenry County and it seems a more normal course of bringing this action forward, to me as an incoming county administrator that has typically seen these types of arrangements through IGAs,” Sutton said.

Covelli said the county sheriff’s office arranged an independent contract between sheriff departments once before when the jail was under construction. Sheriffs in rural areas might use the statutory function to share resources.

“The sheriff has always said and has always known that they had the authority to go into this agreement on their own,” Hart said. “So my question I guess is why would you bring it if you are concerned about waiting? And if you’re concerned, why wouldn’t you just move forward if you always had that authority?”

Intergovernmental agreements, according to Covelli, contain more protections for both parties in regard to indemnification and general liability. Indemnification clauses specify which party will compensate the other party for any losses or damages that may arise from a particular circumstance.

The scope of contractual indemnity is largely determined by the terms of the contract. In contracts that are drafted entirely by one party and simply accepted by the other, indemnity clauses are often broad, according to Bloomberg Law.

“It is always best practice to have the governing legislators agree from each government and sign that binding intergovernmental agreement when making an agreement with another government,” Covelli said.

The contract between two sheriffs’ offices for the housing of inmates in McHenry County will last twelve months, but could be extended if staffing problems persist.

chilles@chicagotribune.com