Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and
Clerk of the Circuit Court
The Juvenile
Temporary Detention Center (“JTDC”)
has been under the supervision of the Federal Court and a court-appointed
Transitional Administrator, Earl Dunlap, for six years. Mr. Dunlap commended the staff at the JTDC
for the major improvements that have been made there. Commissioner Sims questioned him as to when
the Court might find the JTDC ready to be returned to County supervision (which
would now be under the Chief Judge).
Mr. Dunlap said that he could not say.
There is a status hearing in January, and Mr. Dunlap wants to establish
a transition process with the Chief Judge.
A number of things that have held up the transition are now under
way: a request for proposal for a
management information system is now ready to go, but it will probably take 6
to 9 months to implement it; the video system is only now being installed; the
work to replace the ceilings has begun.
Besides making the transition back to County supervision,
the other major issue for the JTDC for 2014 is dealing with the additional JTDC
population due to Raise the Age effective Jan. 1, 2014 (whereby those age 17
will now come under the juvenile justice system, rather than being treated as
an adult). Mr. Dunlap said that he had
to open another center within the JTDC in 2013 to deal with the increase in the
daily population (now averaging between 290-310/d), and he expects to have to
open another one in 2014 due to Raise the Age.
Clerk of the Circuit
Court Dorothy Brown raised several issues.
While news reports have been derisive about her office using carbon
paper, she said that is the result of the County Print Shop not stocking
sufficient carbonized paper to be able to print forms used by her office. The Budget Director said that there is an
increase in the Print Shop’s budget for 2014 which should help with that.
Clerk Brown complained about not being able to hire for
positions that have been approved in her budget. The Budget Director explained that each
department has a turnover adjustment which reduces the amount available for
personnel, reflecting the salaries not being paid during the time between
employees leaving and replacement employees being hired. If a department does not experience the
expected turnover, departments are advised to delay hiring employees for open
positions. The Budget Director was
clearly surprised that Clerk Brown raised this issue has the Budget Director
had not heard from the Clerk’s Chief Financial Officer that there was a
problem.
Clerk Brown also said that recent State legislation allowing
cases to be heard through the County and Chicago Administrative Hearings (such
as the red light camera tickets) means that there are fewer court fees being
paid to her office. [Clerk
Brown failed to note that there is also a reduction in court costs as a result
of cases being dealt with by Administrative Hearings. Unless the court fees are greater than the
court costs, there should be a net benefit to cases being handled through
Administrative Hearings.]
Clerk Brown said that the City of Chicago owes $11.2 million
in filing fees for lawsuits filed to collect unpaid fines. Finally, Clerk Brown said that the Illinois
Supreme Court requires that there be paper files even though some cases and
related items may be electronically filled.
As long as that is the situation, she says she cannot reduce her
staffing levels.
-- submitted by Priscilla Mims, observer
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