Kendall County Jail To Remain Open: Reports

KENDALL COUNTY, IL — After publicly announcing plans for the Kane and Kendall County jails to merge operations, Sheriff Dwight Baird said the two will remain separate and the Kendall County jail will stay open after all, according to reports from the Chicago Tribune.

As part of the change, the corrections staff at the jail, located at 1102 Cornell Lane in Yorkville, will be reduced to 13 officers, the Tribune reported.

"When factoring in other staffing considerations including potential retirements and resignations, we are working to reduce the number of current staff that would be impacted by the potential elimination of positions as much as possible," Kendall County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dan Briars told the Tribune in a statement.

As a new cashless bail system goes into effect January, local detention centers are expecting a drop in inmates. Rather than continue operating the Kendall County jail, Baird originally determined a fiscally responsible alternative would be to shift inmates to Kane County, Patch reported in July.

RELATED: Kendall, Kane County To Merge Jail Operations Beginning In January

"By working together, we save taxpayer money and the inmates from Kendall County will have access to the same detainee services as Kane County inmates," Baird said in a previous news release.

Of the 130-140 inmates that are typically kept in the Kendall County jail on a daily basis, only between 50-60 are residents of the county. And with the new law going into effect in less than half a year, Baird is expecting to see a 30 percent drop in the inmate population.

By merging the two jails, Kendall County expected to see savings between $1.5 million and $2 million in the first year of the collaboration with Kane County, Patch reported.

RELATED: Closing Of Jail Could Save Kendall County Up To $2M, Sheriff Says