 In 2010, the Illinois judicial system was short about $28 million it
was owed for its annual budget.Illinois Supreme Court Chief
Justice Thomas Kilbride said the department only recently received a
small installment of the total $64 million it was owed from state
coffers.
"It's extremely difficult to run these probation departments.
Today, with that additional $20 million, we're at $55 (million), and
what's projected (for the next fiscal year) is the estimated cost
for salaries and probation is … $95 million," Kilbride told a Senate
committee earlier this week.
The probation departments account for about 24 percent of the
entire judicial budget. Illinois has 70 probation departments
supervising more than 100,000 offenders.
State Sen. Suzi Schmidt, R-Lake Villa, agreed with Kilbride "100
percent" and claimed that Lake County is owed $4.8 million from the
state government to pay for probation. She urged lawmakers to
quickly rectify the situation.
Probation "is truly the backbone of any court system, and you're
correct when you say that your backlog comes because you don't have
probation officers," Schmidt said.
State funding accounts for the majority of the revenue for
probation programs. The rollbacks have forced counties to make up
the difference, which they can't afford to do much longer, said
Judith Dallas, director of Madison County's probation department.
"Many positions are having to do double duty or triple duty,
because we had to compact so much and lost so many positions that
one person is doing the job that maybe two people did before,"
Dallas said.
Madison County had to eliminate 30 positions in 2009 because of
budget cuts. Since then, it has brought 11 positions back.
And it's not the only county dealing with layoffs.
Winnebago County eliminated 30 employees in about two years and
is still owed $1.8 million from the state.
"We have probation officers who are supervising more than
probably two times ... what the state standards say that we ought to
supervise," said Dennis Meyers, Winnebago's director of court
services. "Unfortunately, there's still people that are on probation
that need probation officers to see them. So we have less people to
see them, but we try to do the best we can."
Rock Island recently received a check for $205,846, a payment
that finally cleared the state's debt for fiscal 2010.
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"Our supervision officers are (each) handling a caseload close to
(50 youngsters). It may not sound like a lot … but 50 kids is a lot
considering that you ideally should have between 25 and 30," said
Lori Fellenzer, chief juvenile probation officer.
"Our officers have to prioritize the most serious offenders, and
that's where our time is spent with -- the ones that we believe
could cause the most harm to the community," Fellenzer added.
Michael Hancox, director of court services for Adams County, said
payments are "better late than never."
Although reimbursements usually come "months late," the state
pays for 25 percent of the budget, with the rest made up by county
funds and grants.
It isn't just local probation departments hurting from the cuts,
either.
Kilbride warned that judges, too, can't do their jobs properly
without the right funding.
"A judge cannot enter a sentence on a case without a
pre-sentencing report. They can't do a variety of (the) kinds of
things in the probation field that are mandated by the Legislature,
by laws that already exist," Kilbride said.
Madison County's Dallas said she understands that all departments
are feeling the pinch but is worried about overworking her employees
and having to cut additional specialty services, such as employment
education.
"Probation in Illinois has made such progress in the last 10 to
15 years," Dallas said. "It's so disappointing to think that we
might be going backwards."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MELISSA LEU and MARY J. CRISTOBAL]
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