During this month’s Madison County Judiciary Committee meeting, board members and Juvenile Detention Center officials discussed the rise in violent crime and ways the county could address the growing concern.
Director of Probation and Court Services Jackie Wiesehan reported that they currently have 3,563 cases. Of those cases, 204 are juveniles.
Detention center Superintendent John Volkmar reported that they had an average of 11 inmates in the past month with the highest daily count being 18 inmates. He added that they did house one out-of-county juvenile who was picked up in Madison County.
Wiesehan said that while their numbers have increased roughly 50 cases from last month, the state is facing a shortage of probation and detention workers around the state. She said Champaign County is having a difficult time filling positions and asked if Madison County could house some of their juveniles.
“That is the theme throughout Illinois,” she said.
She added that the Madison County Detention Center may see its own staffing issues in the coming years as roughly half of the department is set to retire in the next four to five years.
Committee chair Mike Walters asked about the difficulty in finding people interested in working at the detention center.
“It’s the violence of the kids they are dealing with,” Volkmar responded.
He said Champaign County is seeing shootings daily and a lot of gang activity. He explained that three officers have been assaulted recently and two remain in the hospital.
“The kids we’re housing now, they may be a lower number, but it’s the cream of the crop,” Volkmar said. “We’re talking murder, armed robbery, sexual assault.”
He added that juveniles at the detention centers across the state today are more violent than they were a decade ago, as crimes used to be burglary or property damage. However, inmates today have “little to no regard for human life anymore.”
Wiesehan said most detention center inmates have some kind of weapons charge, including three murder cases. It was unclear if she was referring to Madison County inmates or those from Champaign County.
Volkmar said that if you compared inmates in Madison County from 15 years ago to today, they now see very few misdemeanors. He said they may be incarcerated for a day or so and then they are released. Years ago, juveniles committing those same misdemeanors would be there for several months.
“The types of crimes that are being charged are, I think, are different, more violent,” he said.
Committee member Mike Babcock asked if Madison County has programs to educate kids and steer them in a different direction or what they can do to start a program.
Volkmar responded that they need to try to change the way kids think. He explained that the inmates are learning the behaviors in broken homes. They end up going to the detention center and then they are put right back into those same households.
Walters said the increase in violent crimes reflects the world today and the “mob mentality.” He said this is especially a problem in places where they don’t have bonds and people are released almost immediately after committing crimes.
“If we don’t do anything, we’re going to get the same results,” Babcock added. “The question is, will we do anything and can we do anything?”
Volkmar added that Madison County has a program to educate children, and they used to go into every school district to talk about making good choices and the consequences of committing crimes. However, those programs have “tapered down” as a result of state budget cuts.
Wiesehan explained that state funding was reduced and they lost 36 employees in 2009.
“So if I hear you correctly, they are charging more on taxes from the state and we are getting less money from the State of Illinois?” Babcock asked.
“It’s absolutely true,” Walters responded.
Babcock suggested they work to reimplement the program and ask schools to allow them to come in to talk with the students.
“Our today’s youth is tomorrow’s politics,” he said.