Walworth County officials look around for ideas on jail overcrowding
Photo Gallery
Walworth County Law Enforcement Center jail
Overcrowding at the jail in the Walworth County Law Enforcement Center has officials looking for ways to tackle th problem. Space is available in unused portions of the Huber dorm, but security concerns make that option problematic.
Quick facts about the jail
The Walworth County Jail is divided into Huber dorms for inmates with work-release privileges, jail for those awaiting trial and jail for those who have been sentenced to serve time.
The Huber dorm has 321 beds. Fifty of them are not available because of a tight county budget that won’t allow Sheriff David Graves to hire 10 extra correctional officers needed to run the place. About 171 inmates will stay at the Huber dorm on a regular day.
ELKHORN — Officials in Walworth County are looking at how nine other counties run their corrections programs to get ideas about how to solve the local problem of jail overcrowding.
The comparative study is the latest effort to avoid signing a multimillion-dollar check for a new jail. The current jail runs at an average of 80 percent capacity, but it sometimes overflows to a point where some inmates sleep on the floor.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is find any other programs or any other opportunities we can use within our existing operations,” Undersheriff Kurt Picknell said.
Counties included are Dodge, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, La Crosse, Ozaukee, Rock, Sheboygan and Washington.
Assessing the jail’s future has been in the works since last December. Officials don’t expect a resolution until at least fall 2010. For now, they are evaluating all options to use current infrastructure to reduce stays and recidivism.
Most of the options likely will include staffing costs, Picknell said, but those costs would be a smaller investment than bricks and mortar.
The Walworth County Jail has 191 beds for inmates without work-release privileges. It was built 14 years ago on the edge of Elkhorn’s east side.
Among several, the options include improving education programs for inmates and creating a day reporting system. The latter would make inmates report daily to jail to ensure they are following the conditions of their bonds or sentences, but it would allow them to sleep at home.
Dan Kilkenny, vice chairman of the county board’s executive committee, said it’s important to keep in mind that inmates at the county jail are only there for a short time, with a maximum sentence of one year per charge.
“The county jail is not a place where you warehouse people, lock them up and throw away the key,” Kilkenny said. “We need to look at understanding they’re going to be back in the community fairly quickly and figure out what’s the most effective way to do this from a rehabilitation standpoint.”
David Weber, chairman of the executive committee, said some of the options on the table are doable, and some probably are not. For now, everything is an option, he added.
“We’re still in the discovery mode,” Weber said.
Apr 3, 2010 at 5 p.m.
Suggest removal
eman is kind of on to something. I have a friend who has a son who is in and out of trouble with the law. He recently did a 3 month stint at Walworth Co. jail. When asked about it, he said he liked it. Read it again: He LIKED it. Not that it was an appropriate amount of punishment for his offense. Not that it was difficult to be away from family and friends (because Walworth Co. has a VERY liberal visitation policy).
Perhaps if County jails weren't more of a family reunion or a gathering of friends and the inmates were made to view their time behind bars as more of a punishment to help him/her see how he/she harmed the community, there wouldn't be such a recivism rate, and people will learn to take responsibility for their actions and do a little thinking before they do something illegal.
I am a student in a Criminal Justice program. the State of Wisconsin spends over $7 billion annually to keep prisoners in jails and prisons. Seems we need to DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW!! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
Apr 3, 2010 at 4:33 p.m.
Suggest removal
Also in the picture, seems like a nice gym, WHY? This is a county jail not the YMCA!
Apr 3, 2010 at 4:26 p.m.
Suggest removal
Let people off easy like Rock County does, overcrowding solved!
Apr 3, 2010 at 6:02 a.m.
Suggest removal
For those that do not want to lock up the bad guy may be they could stay at your home
Apr 2, 2010 at 9:02 p.m.
Suggest removal
Eman- I dont have one source to give you. The number I gave is a pretty accepted fact, however, I can link you to some sources that show numbers within that range..
http://www.co.la-crosse.wi.us/Sheriff/di...
http://www.mpp.org/states/wisconsin/news...
http://www.justicestrategies.org/2006/tr...
Apr 2, 2010 at 8:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
Chain gangs? For NON-violent offenders? What century are you from, Eman?
.
We have in Rock County a fully chainless program for non-violent offenders and fine-payers to give back to the county and the community through Workenders. Somehow we manage to do it without satisfying the lurid bondage fantasies of some members of the public. Walworth would do well to set up something similar.
http://www.co.rock.wi.us/index.php/commu...
Apr 2, 2010 at 6:27 p.m.
Suggest removal
The real answer is to not send people to jail for non-violent crimes. 1 year of county jail costs between 25-35 thousand dollars, the costs need to be justified.
Judges (and the state houses) need to take a long hard look at what crimes truly require issolation from society and what crimes can be dealt with in other ways. Of course, no one ever won re-election on a "let criminals out of jail" platform.
Apr 2, 2010 at 5:57 p.m.
Suggest removal
Since the US appears to be the world leader of incarceration (http://tinyurl.com/dbj6jh); perhaps we as a society should look for other forms of punishment for certain crimes.
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.