Dart: Cuts lead to more mentally ill being jailed
BY STEVE METSCH smetsch@southtownstar.com February 11, 2012 7:23PM
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart presents a lecture at Saint Xavier University in Chicago's Mt. Greenwood community Thursday, February 9, 2012. | Brett Roseman~Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 13, 2012 10:29AM
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is concerned the county jail is fast becoming a repository for the mentally ill.
About 2,000 of the 10,000 detainees at Cook County Jail, 26th Street and California Avenue in Chicago, have mental health problems, Dart said Thursday night during a speaking engagement at St. Xavier University in Chicago.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s decision to cut spending on mental health — including the looming closure of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center — may increase the problem, he said.
“We’re the largest mental health provider in the state of Illinois. I have more than 2,000 people in my custody who have serious mental health issues,” Dart told a standing-room-only crowd in the Butler Reception Room. “They are receiving medication and counseling and have some serious, serious issues.
“The number increases ever year. As services keep getting cut in the community, they’re coming to me.”
Some may have avoided arrest had they been given proper treatment, he said, adding his office might take legal action to recoup spending related to mental health care.
“We’ve started putting together the framework of bringing a lawsuit,” Dart said. “We’re trying to refine it. The issue is they’re all coming to me, and the thing is, we aren’t the most equipped to provide for them.
“Mental health issues are being criminalized. It’s a mandate being foisted upon me by the state. At the end of the day, the sheriffs are now becoming mental health providers.”
Dart said he sent a letter to the state objecting to the service cuts.
Dart touched on several other topics:
Budget battle
Dart said the sheriff’s department is trying to save money. It has a deal with Chicago’s Animal Care and Control department in which the jail sends 20 detainees daily to clean out cages, and feed and walk animals.
“It saves the city $1 million a year and earns us about $400,000,” he said.
Another $750,000 is saved with inmates doing laundry on-site. There are plans to market the service outside the jail.
Inmates also work at a plant disassembling computers so the parts can be sold.
South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Asked whether the sheriff’s police would help with security for the parade — scheduled for March 11 — Dart, a resident of the 19th Ward, deadpanned, “What parade?”
A strong sheriff’s police presence is unlikely because of the precedent it would set, he said.
“I’d be willing to help, but it would have to be on terms that make sense for everybody,” he said.
Cemeteries
Reflecting on the shocking discoveries of bodies improperly buried or exhumed at Burr Oak and Homewood Memorial Gardens cemeteries over the past few years, Dart is still shaken.
“The public side is not beginning to scratch the surface of what we saw out there. The amount of illegally exhumed bodies went well beyond. The practice had gone on for years and is just horrific,” Dart said.
He said his office takes calls every week about bodies buried improperly at Burr Oak.
“People who had contracts to bury someone go and find a body is already buried there. It happens all the time,” Dart said.
Drugs
Dart said “about 50 to 60 percent” of those housed at Cook County Jail are there on drug-related charges.
“Most are for large amounts of drugs or they are dealers,” he said.
A cut above
South Side barber Larry Roberts has started teaching detainees his trade.
“He charges $10,000 per person normally, that’s the going rate, but he does this for free at the jail. It’s amazing,” Dart said.
One inmate, grateful to learn a skill, began crying, Dart said.
“He told me, ‘When I leave here I won’t have to sell dope anymore,’ ” Dart said.
Upcoming summits
Dart said a strategic law enforcement plan for the NATO and G-8 summits in Chicago in May is not yet in place. But protesters who are arrested will have a place to stay.
“Maybe just put them in with the general population. If that doesn’t teach them a lesson, nothing will,” Dart said.
More laughs
Dart had the room rolling when he spoke about four sting operations he has run.
People wanted on arrest warrants sometimes are sent letters telling them they’ve won a gift card or TV. When they show up to collect the prize, they are arrested.
“One guy called once and said his bus broke down and he wondered if we’d give him another hour. We said we would,” Dart said. “He ran the last quarter-mile or so. We felt kind of guilty when we arrested him.”
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