An updated proposal for county jail consolidation was brought before the full Champaign County Board for the first time Thursday night. Now county board members must decide how to deal with both a pressing need --- and a daunting price tag.
The Champaign County Board will discuss a new report Thursday evening on proposals to consolidate its county jail operations into a single building. That discussion is expected to be the first of several before a decision is reached on the county jail’s future.
In recent years, county jails across the nation have taken steps to try to keep inmates with mental illness from cycling in and out of jail. One approach involves stepped up mental health screening, coupled with efforts to get inmates plugged into community-based treatment after they are released.
“No New Tax For Jails” is the message on yard signs opposing Champaign County’s sales tax referendum. Opponents of the quarter-cent sales tax say it will expand the county jail system, tempting county officials to put more people --- especially minorities – behind bars. But county officials say the work on the jail is needed, as part of plans to maintain all Champaign County government buildings.
Voters in Champaign County have three countywide referenda on the ballot this year. Two of them are dueling proposals about whether to elect a countywide board chair or executive. The third would raise the county’s sales tax one quarter of a percentage point for a period of twelve years, with the revenue slated to go toward facilities projects, including an expanded county jail at the satellite location in east Urbana.
