Lake Co. Jail Guards Face Dangers: Letter

Faulty elevators and radio problems have caused safety issues for corrections officers at the Lake County Jail, a letter from Teamsters Local 700 to Sheriff Mark Curran states.

The letter includes meeting notes and officer emails reporting several problems from November to January, according to the Lake County News-Sun.

In one instance, 18 officers were stuck on an elevator for 25 minutes in December and were unable to transmit by radio. On several occassions, the officers had to be rescued by a ladder when the elevator was stuck between floors.

The problems caused a delayed response time in at least one case of an officer being attacked by an inmate.

“During this attack our response time was severely delayed due to one of two elevators being non-operational,” one officer wrote in an email contained in the Teamsters’ letter. “I believe the safety and security of the staff is being neglected because of this issue.”

Sheriff’s officials have responded that some of the problems mentioned have been fixed, but admitted that the jail remains severely understaffed.

There are more than 500 inmates in the jail and only 189 corrections officers, who work in shifts.

more via the Lake County News-Sun