TAZEWELL COUNTY JAILS MORE WOMEN

Sheriff Blames Meth And Related Crimes For Increase

PEKIN - Tazewell County's methamphetamine problem is resulting in more women
being arrested than ever before and, as a result, the number of women the
county sends to the Peoria County Jail is skyrocketing, officials say.

"We're seeing real staggering numbers," said Tazewell County Sheriff Robert
Huston.

On any given day last year, Tazewell County had an average of 10 women
jailed in Peoria County, up from a daily average of seven in 2001.

Just last week, an average 24 female inmates from Tazewell County were being
jailed each day in Peoria County, triple the rate two years ago.

Huston blames meth and the crimes associated in manufacturing the drug -
including theft and burglary - as the leading reasons why there are more
women going to jail from Tazewell.

"It's becoming a huge problem, not to mention a terribly addictive drug,"
Huston said.

The reason Tazewell County jails its female inmates in Peoria County is
because the Tazewell County Jail, located in the McKenzie Building in
downtown Pekin, lacks space for women.

So female inmates are transported to the Peoria County Jail, on Tazewell
County taxpayers' dime. In 1999, Tazewell County paid Peoria County $103,500
to jail its women.

The approximate cost to jail Tazewell County's women in 2002 was $161,000,
or $17,000 over what Tazewell County budgeted, Huston said.

For 2003, Tazewell County budgeted a nine-month cost of $123,000 to jail
women. The remainder of the year, women will be incarcerated in Tazewell
County's new Justice Center - set to open in downtown Pekin this summer -
which will have dedicated space for Tazewell County to jail its own women.

But Huston said Tazewell County is on pace to spend more money to house
women in Peoria County for nine months of this year than Tazewell County
spent to do so all of last year.

The $123,000 budget also does not consider transportation costs and salaries
of officers who must travel with the women to the Peoria County Jail.

Another problem facing Tazewell County is that its Justice Center is
designed to handle no more than 24 female inmates at a time. At today's
level, the new jail would already be at full capacity, Huston said.

John Wyant, professor of criminal justice at Illinois Central College, said
its nothing new for a jail to be at maximum capacity shortly after it opens.

"You could almost get an office pool going on the time they open the door to
the time they fill it," Wyant said. "That's true for all facilities . . .
it's the nature of our system."

Huston said jailing women is just one of the many costs Tazewell County is
incurring from an increasing number of meth arrests. For instance, he said
the jail must provide for the medical needs of people injured when making
the drug.

Meth is highly combustible because the possible ingredients - anhydrous
ammonia, lithium metal and red phosphorus, to name a few - can catch fire or
explode when heated, as a meth lab did on Jan. 7 in a Pekin apartment.

"We have to try and reduce this problem," Huston said. "One way or the
other, we're going to pay for it."

Tazewell County is also bucking a statewide trend of declining female prison
populations and stagnant county jail populations.

In July 2002, 2,706 women spent time in a state prison, compared to 2,884 in
2001, said Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Fairchild.

In Peoria County, jail superintendent Steve Smith said the average number of
female inmates arrested in that county is neither increasing nor decreasing.

And in Woodford County, the number of women jailed has increased slightly
but cannot be attributed to any particular crime, said Sheriff Jim
Pierceall.