IL Appellate Court Stop County Inmate Transfers To IDOC

By Benjamin Cox on August 25, 2020 at 1:11pm

County Jails lost in Illinois Appellate Court this morning. The Fourth Appellate District overturned a Logan County Court ruling from August 3rd that stayed Governor J.B. Pritzker’s order that county jails could not transfer inmates into the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Logan County Judge Jonathan C. Wright in the ruling said the order ran afoul of the State statute that the Illinois Department of Corrections must accept an inmate within 14 days of a transfer. Pritzker’s order struck that language for the duration of his emergency orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fourth Appellate District overturned the order this morning so county jails will now have to house any criminals that are sentenced to IDOC until the Pritzker Administration lifts the order. The Champaign News-Gazette reports that Illinois sheriff’s transported roughly 2,000 inmates to state prisons in the last three weeks.

COVID-19 infection rates have reported doubled in IDOC facilities since that time. Two weeks ago, DOC reported that 371 inmates had contracted the virus, 336 of whom recovered. Today, DOC reported 729 coronavirus cases, 470 of whom recovered.