07/14/2020
As of Independence Day 2020, the jail housed close to 230 inmates. 80% of those are in jail pre-trial which means they haven’t been convicted of any crime yet and are innocent until proven guilty. The majority of those pre-trial are being held on cash bonds, meaning if they could afford to pay they wouldn’t be in jail anymore.
On July 7th, during a meeting of the McLean County Justice Committee, Sheriff Jon Sandage took his time to complain about the release of 13 people from the jail on Juneteenth by Black Lives Matter BloNo and the Chicago Community Bond Fund.1 BLM BloNo spent over $8,000 to release three individuals, and with the help of the Chicago Community Bond Fund, spent over $80,000 releasing ten people who were arrested for allegedly looting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
Only a government official would complain about being paid close to $90,000 to do their job. As someone who was there when the inmates were released, Sandage gave terrible customer service taking over 7 hours to release a dozen people, kicked paying constituents out of the waiting room into the rain, and him along with several officers were not wearing masks during a global pandemic. And, Sandage is the one who has an almost pathological obsession with keeping in place cash bond & other means of profiting off of incarceration. It’s quite disheartening to hear Sandage complain about black people paying cash bonds when he is the one who supports the cash bail scheme. In the words of County Board member Sharon Chung: “To make a pointless political statement in a time of crisis not only insults me but also threatens the safety of our friends and neighbors.”
It’s also very disconcerting that Sandage doesn’t seem to know how the justice system works. BLM is not the one who determines whether an individual is a threat to themselves or the community. It’s judges that make this determination. If a judge issued a cash bond to an individual, this means the judge has decided they are not a safety risk to the community. Just as Sandage has no intention of ripping up judge’s orders to release people, BLM has no intention of second guessing a judge’s lawful decision to grant bond to any person who is facing criminal charges; nor does BLM plan on denying people their constitutional right to innocence until guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Perhaps Sandage should stop complaining about doing his job in public forums and take his concerns to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) of which he is a member.2
Sandage also took this time to give his opinion on how Black People should spend their resources, giving a recommendation (that no one asked for) that the money be given to the Boys & Girls Club. When people of a colonial complexion like Sandage attempt to tell black people how they should fight for equality & justice, they have gone too far. The Chicago Community Bond Fund received over $15 million in donations since George Floyd’s murder because the majority of people are sickened by for-profit forms of incarceration. Since he’s so supportive of the Boys & Girls Club, maybe we should take $90,000 out of his budget and give it to them.
“Basically, what they are saying is if you’ve been accused of a crime you should be locked up until it’s time for you to go to court to have your case heard,” Ajayi said. “If that’s what they really believe, that’s un-American, that’s not what our justice system says.”
Ajayi rejects claims that helping the alleged looters get out of jail will set back the movement for racial justice. “If that process is going to take them away from the Black Lives Matter movement, and the movement for justice against murderers, I would ask those same people, bail was set for some of the officers who stood by and did nothing as the life was choked out of George Floyd. Those officers have been bailed out. Do they have the same qualms about those officers? If so, their problem is with the system, not Black Lives Matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, the jail’s population is steadily rising while we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, a battle which the U.S. is losing badly. Peoria County Jail just found out two of their guards have tested positive for COVID-19, and they have no idea whether inmates there have been effected. As I’ve written elsewhere, jails are considered petri dishes for communicable diseases. We still do not have County Board members that take their responsibility to oversee the jail seriously. There were no questions about PPE supplies, testing for COVID-19 at the jail, or much else for that matter. Most County members would rather shirk their responsibilities and just defer to the Sheriff.
- FULL DISCLOSURE: The author assisted the organizations in the bonding process.
- This group which includes the Sheriff’s office, the State’s Attorney, Public Defender, County Administration, County Board members, members of the defense bar, members of the general public, and the judiciary decides which inmates are safety risks or not.
