CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Another COVID-19 surge has been going through the Kane County Jail, making its sheriff long for the completion of a camera system that could lessen the risks for such outbreaks in the future.
“We were at 15 corrections officers that were quarantined due to COVID last week. Now, we’re down to three [quarantined at home],” Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain told WBBM Newsradio.
Hain said he had to work a 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. shift at the jail last week because he had a staff shortage due to COVID-19.
There are also more detainees with COVID-19 and Hain said the “invisible enemy,” as he calls it, is being brought in by corrections officers and spread to detainees because there’s so much personal interaction between them.
That’s why Hain said he can’t wait until next fall when a new $4-million camera system would be designed and installed and corrections officers would not have to spend entire shifts in detainee cellblocks.
“That’s going to afford our indirect capabilities here at Kane County so the officers will not have to have that one-on-one contact as much as they do now,” Hain said.
Hain said he believes jails in Will, Kane and Lake counties have seen spikes in COVID-19 because they are all “direct supervision” facilities while county jails in DuPage and Kendall have much lower rates of COVID-19 because corrections officers remotely monitor detainees.
He said 60% of his corrections officers are vaccinated against COVID-19.
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