The state is hiring pre-trial services personnel who need office space. Their job is to visit jails and meet with inmates to make recommendations about who can be let out without bail and who should stay behind bars while facing charges. That’s part of how the state’s no-cash bail system will be run. That system is to get started on January 1.
LaSalle County Sheriff Adam Diss is proposing the county lease an office in the county jail to those state employees and get some revenue. That would help make up for a loss of revenue from so many defendants not posting bail anymore. The county is allowed to take a 10% cut of what they pay, even if they’re found not guilty or the charges are dropped.
Diss told the County Board Public Safety Committee last week, the state is paying $12 per square foot per month for places for the pre-trial services to work from. He believes the office he has in mind is 247 square feet. That would bring in $2,964 per month. Diss says they’re going to be in the jail frequently anyway, so they might as well have their office there.