Jail Statistics as of August 23rd, 2020:
Population: 211
Black: 54.5%
People of Color: 61.5%
People of No Color: 38.5%
Pre-trial: 90%
Charged with Felony: 88.7%
Charged with Felony against Property: 23.5%
Charged with Felony against Person: 19.7%
Charged with Misdemeanor: 2.8%
Charged with drug offense: 33.3%
COVID-19:
Inmates: 5 have tested positive in total
Staff: 2 have tested positive in total.
Currently, zero positive cases in jail.
5-day average for Jail Arrivals/Release:
Arrival: 13.8
Released: 12.4
Sheriff Sandage has frequently lamented how difficult it has been to guard the court house and jail because of civil unrest for Black Liberation. “We’ve spent a ridiculous amount of money on overtime hours to protect the Law and Justice Center,” said Sandage.
When there was backlash against an ordinance to regulate protests on county property at the August 18, 2020 Stand-up Property Meeting, Sandage sent out a desperate distress call from his Sandwich-mobile hidden deep within the McLean County Legion of Misery – formally referred to as the Law & (In)justice Center.1 On August 20th, he sent this “aggravated & passionate” plea for help.
“I understand there may be some hesitation with the proposed ordinance that was tabled at the county board meeting Tuesday, hopefully I can clarify some of the issues law enforcement has. As Sheriff, by statute I am responsible for care and custody of the courthouse and jail and I take those responsibilities seriously. Over the past few months my deputies and I have worked hundreds of hours of overtime at tax payer expense to protect the courthouse, jail and other county assets from disruption and damage. Protests outside of our facilities not only can disrupt judicial proceedings but also cause an unsafe environment in the jail for staff and inmates. In the last month I have had 7 correctional officers injured, many still off work from injuries received trying to control inmates who have been agitated and encouraged by protests outside the jail facility. Enough is enough, give us the ordinance we need to prevent such occurrences before staff , inmates or protesters get injured. Your failure to act expeditiously on this ordinance has already spurred talks of tent camping on the courthouse lawn by area Black Lives Matter Activists. Two weekends ago the grounds of the Law and Justice Center, including a memorial garden dedicated to those who have died from drug overdose was defaced with anti Law enforcement graffiti, which again cost tax payers money to clean up. As Sheriff, I follow the constitution and respect the right of peaceful assembly, however these groups are bordering on property damage, violence and are causing disruption to our jail operations. If I sound aggravated and passionate, I am and I hope that you as elected officials will also see the urgency and show compassion to employees and tax payers that must shoulder this burden.”
Oh, the many tears we could shed for this poor public servant. I’ve been to almost every demonstration at the Law & (In)justice Center, and in every single situation the answer was not more security or more law enforcement. Not a single demonstration has damaged any jail property or even come close. The violence he dreads is just the people (the people he works for) yelling at him. The tensest moment I’ve witnessed at the jail was probably May 31st, right after we were run over by a biker injuring several comrades. That was the most chaotic I’ve ever seen an event there. Sandage should remember, because he was a first responder on the scene trying to help a girl who was injured after being ran over by Marshall Blanchard. But still, despite all that chaos, not a single part of jail property was damaged. The thing that ultimately deescalated the whole protest the most was the point where the State Police guarding the entrance in light riot gear retreated into the building.
Oh, the overtime hours Sandage has wasted guarding against a non-existent threat. He claims people are vandalizing the property with graffiti that took great effort to remove. It was children drawing with chalk. Chalk! The kind that disappears with this thing called water! Why are you wasting resources removing something that nature will literally do for free? Why are you paying overtime hours to deputies who go up to children at a fine arts festival and threaten them for using chalk on the sidewalk? How does that benefit the tax payer?
Injured guards? Injured inmates? That sounds really bad. Is there any actual proof of this? I don’t mean to come off as crass, but this Sheriff has prevaricated so frequently it’s genuinely difficult to take his credulity seriously. It’s not like I can FOIA medical records on guards or incidents of violence.
Thankfully, county board members were more afraid of legal action from the ACLU then Sandage’s fantastical fears of anyone slightly left of Joe Arpaio. The Property Committee voted 5-2 against the protest ordinance so desperately demanded.
This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.
