Friday, August 22, 2008

by Hal Dardick

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has severely cut the number of criminal defendants released on electronic home monitoring, boosting the population at the crowded jail and costing the county millions in expenses.

Dart said he's keeping more than 1,000 extra defendants in jail each day to protect public safety because he thinks Cook County judges—rather than his staff—should decide which inmates go home. But critics say Dart is dodging his responsibility to make such decisions under an ongoing federal court order aimed at eliminating jail overcrowding.

Dart, who began reducing home monitoring in 2006 as chief of staff under the previous sheriff, has escalated the practice since being elected to the post later that year. He is sparring with Chief Circuit Judge Timothy Evans about which of them decides who gets placed in the monitoring program.

"For me, blindly, to be letting people out, is not right," Dart said recently, contending judges are in a better position to determine whether defendants could harm someone, or flee prosecution, when placed on a monitor.