Judge orders Illinois Department of Human Services Director to answer why ‘unfit’ detainees linger

[June 21, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – County jailers across Illinois have a new inmate problem to contend with.

The director of the Illinois Department of Human Services has been ordered to appear before a Sangamon County judge to answer why the state is not taking county inmates deemed unfit to stand trial.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, county sheriffs sued the state for not taking detainees who were sentenced to state prison. While that’s now cleared up, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said there’s a new problem – the state isn’t taking detainees deemed unfit for trial.

“We cannot handle the treatment that they need,” Campbell told WMAY. “We are not a mental health facility, we are a detention facility and it was unfair to the inmate themselves that the court had said ‘they need help that the court and the jail cannot provide them, so they need to be transferred out.’”

Officials from the Illinois Department of Human Services told the county in late May they are “in the process of making significant capacity changes within the inpatient hospital system.”

“We are working to prioritize these individuals as quickly as we can given our operational demands,” said a May 23 email to Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright from Shannon Coleman. “Nevertheless, I believe that, at a minimum, we will make significant progress in the next 2 weeks.”

Wright said in a statement the county cannot afford to absorb the statutory obligations of DHS.

“DHS has left seriously ill inmates to languish without court-ordered treatment only to become more and more sick,” Wright said. “It is a grave disservice to the individuals who need mental health care, crime victims whose cases are further delayed by the state’s failure to act, inmates and jail staff whose safety is jeopardized, and taxpayers who expect state agencies to discharge their statutory duties without the threat of litigation.”

Campbell said he’s holding as many as 15 detainees declared unfit to stand trial, and the state not having bed space is not the county’s problem.

“That’s their problem,” Campbell said. “I’ve had to deal with overcrowding in the jail and I have to figure it out, right? They have to find that bed space.”

The detainees that are supposed to be taken by the IDHS are lingering in county jail, taking limited taxpayer resources, Campbell said.

“They require a lot of care and it’s taking care away from inmates that need it also,” Campbell said.

In his conversations with other sheriffs, Campbell said this is happening across the state.

“Every sheriff deals with this,” Campbell said. “Every sheriff is just like me, we’re not set up for this. These people need treatment. We can’t force medications on them. They go to DHS and they can force medications on them, we cannot do that. They sit and linger in our custody and that’s not where they belong.”

Last week, the state was ordered to take such inmates. The director of IDHS has been ordered to appear before a Sangamon County judge on June 27 for a contempt of court hearing.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.