KANKAKEE COUNTY, Ill. — Sheriff Downey told the Kankakee County Criminal Justice Committee on Oct. 15 that the county jail census for September 2025 was 241 on the morning the report was taken and that the agency’s census was higher at comparable morning counts in September 2024, which the sheriff read as 2,006.

Downey said warrants account for a substantial portion of the jail population because many people do not appear in court. He also described the county’s ongoing cooperation with federal partners including the FBI, DEA, ETF and U.S. Marshals, and said those relationships affect local counts.

On reimbursement, Downey said the county participated in mutual-aid deployments through the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) for the 2024 Republican and Democratic national conventions. ILEAS billed the city of Chicago $1,323,000 for the Democratic National Convention deployment; the sheriff said ILEAS received that payment and that Kankakee County’s share of reimbursement is $38,000.

Downey addressed community concerns about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in town, saying the sheriff’s office typically learns of ICE activity the same way residents do — via social media. “They don't call us and tell us who they're looking for,” he said, adding that many reports of ICE are inaccurate and that law-enforcement gatherings for other purposes (for example, SWAT training) can be mistaken for ICE activity.

Committee action: the committee accepted the sheriff’s monthly report by voice vote.

Why it matters: jail census and warrant volumes inform detention costs and resource planning; federal reimbursements offset local overtime and backfill costs for deployments; local perceptions of ICE activity intersect with community policing and public information practices.

What the sheriff did not say: Downey provided an overall census snapshot and described trends; he did not provide an itemized budget for the $38,000 reimbursement or a detailed breakdown of the population drivers beyond warrants and federal partner activity.