Stateville Prison system turns away 33 McLean County inmates

Sandage says his jail currently has 43 inmates that should be held by IDOC, and that is creating issues with quarantine and isolation. (Photo courtesy: Heart of Illinois ABC)

By Heart of Illinois ABC

BLOOMINGTON – Not only do they have a COVID-19 problem to deal with, the McLean County Jail is also having trouble sending inmates to state prison.

A judge ruled in McLean County’s favor Tuesday morning, finding the department of corrections had to start taking inmates immediately, without restrictions. However, Sheriff Jon Sandage told the McLean county justice committee Tuesday that 36 inmates were bused to the State Department of Corrections, but the agency only accepted three.

Sandage says his jail currently has 43 inmates that should be held by IDOC, and that is creating issues with quarantine and isolation.

“They were stating that they had a capacity of 184 inmates that they could take today, single bunk and they stopped at that. I don’t know any other reason other than they said they were full,” said Sandage.

Sheriff Sandage also addressed public concern regarding visitation. Numerous members of the community sent in emails for public comment, most upset with how Sheriff Jon Sandage is handling COVID-19 at the county jail. All who wrote in say it is unfair that free remote video visitation is not being offered to inmates, despite IC solutions setting up free video calls earlier this spring. However, Sandage said visitation has been allowed since early summer.

“Contrary to some information that is out there, in person video visitation at the jail is open, has been open since June 1, no restrictions. We had suspended it for a while at the start of COVID, and we opened it back up June 1, and it’s been that way sine,” said Sandage.

The jail currently has five active cases. Sandage says all inmates will continue to be tested every five days until there are no more cases. He added the jail is being professionally cleaned Wednesday.

Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected]

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