•January 3, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

When I was a youngster in days of yore, the sheriff and his wife lived above the 19th Century jail, and the better half served as the matron, preparing the same meals for the inmates downstairs as for her family.

Granted, it was a tiny county, but all jails were pretty much the same then—warehouses for detainees caught between law enforcement and their day in court, you might say.

I visited this past week with Brian Asbell, a 23-year veteran of the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office, who was recently moved up to the top job to fill a vacancy.

A county of about 200,000, Peoria has probably the biggest such operation south of I-80. Sure, the deputies patrol the rural areas and collaborate with city and state law enforcement. But the biggest job by far is operating the county jail of anywhere from 300-400 inmates on any given day.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.