PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – The jail population in Peoria is the lowest in years, and Peoria County Sheriff Chris Watkins thinks part of the reason is the new SAFE-T Act.
On Sept. 18, when Illinois eliminated the cash bail system, the Peoria County Jail had 380 prisoners. As of Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Watkins reported a total of 265 inmates. The jail’s capacity is 520.
That’s a drop of more than 100 in the 3 1/2-months since the no cash bail law took effect.
Sheriff Watkins says the jail population always increases in the summer and falls in the winter, but with more rules on detention and several moving factors, he thinks the SAFE-T Act has some influence.
“Probably by the end of the week, after we have like 16 people who are heading out to the [department of corrections] that have already been sentenced, we’ll be down below 250 by the end of the week, which is the lowest I’ve seen in years,” said Watkins.
The sheriff says he looked at New Jersey’s overall jail population compared to crime rates when they switched to pretrial risk assessment instead of monetary bail. He says that state’s jail populations also went down and stayed down, but crime rates stayed the same.
Watkins says he’s still 12 correctional officers down, and they’re still producing overtime. He adds having the lower population helps, but he’s still working to fill those vacancies.
Even with a lower detainee population, Sheriff Watkins says food prices for the jail have tripled, so he doesn’t think they’re saving any money on that front either.
