As the coronavirus outbreak hits Logan County hard in recent weeks, the DeWitt County Sheriff's office is lending a helping hand to his colleague to the west.

DeWitt County Sheriff Mike Walker has been housing select inmates from the Logan County Jail as their community battles the coronavirus. Thursday night at the DeWitt County Board meeting, Public Safety Committee Chairperson Lance Reece provided the Board with details on the matter. Sheriff Walker tells Regional Radio News this all stems from an earlier executive order from Governor JB Pritzker impacting the Illinois Department of Corrections.

About three weeks ago, DeWitt County housed six inmates from the Department of Corrections compared to more than double that in Logan County. The Sheriff explains Logan County Sheriff Mark Landers was not comfortable bringing in new arrestees with an outbreak taking place in their jail.

To lend a hand to Logan County, Sheriff Walker agreed to take any new arrestees that were screened and tested for COVID. To avoid exposing Logan County inmates to COVID at their jail or releasing some to the public, Logan County is bringing some arrestees to DeWitt County.

Sheriff Walker indicates inmates might stay just a night or two, others have bond set and are released. He calls it a situation where DeWitt County is in the midst of three or four counties of similar size and the working relationship between the various agencies allows them all to work well together.

Sheriff Walker also notes Logan County is paying DeWitt County for these efforts.