Eight months after McLean County Sheriff Matt Lane said he hoped the practice would last just a few weeks, the county is no longer sending inmates to the LaSalle County Jail.
Lane told members of the McLean County Board's Justice Committee earlier this week that as of noon Tuesday, no more inmates were at the jail in Ottawa.
In March, Lane said a shortage of at least 24 corrections staff prompted him to send dozens of inmates out-of-county for detention. To bring all inmates back to the McLean County jail, Lane set a 64-person goal to bring the facility back to full staffing levels.
"We've hired at least 30 people for the jail in the last eight months," Lane told county board members Tuesday.
"We've got enough now, and they're far enough along in their training, that we can put them on the floor and handle all of those inmates that we have back."
Speaking to WGLT on Thursday, Lane said the jail is at 64 staffers exactly, pending the results of a handful of pending background checks.
The hires come after increased recruitment efforts from the sheriff's office and county board approval of a new contract with the union representing the county's correctional officers that included an updated sick leave policy and pay-step increases of between 3-5% annually from 2021 to 2025.
Speaking to county board committee members Tuesday, Lane said he hoped to also open a unit for court-ordered periodic imprisonment "soon."
