Today’s numbers
Monday, Oct 3, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From James Warren’s column on Illinois’ complete failure at imprisoning youths…
According to the state’s auditor general, the average cost to the Illinois taxpayer is $142,342 per offender at Murphysboro. It’s even higher, $215,750, at the Pere Marquette youth prison in Grafton, which has 18 offenders and 49 staff members. The governor tried closing that one but failed amid opposition over the loss of jobs.
The recidivism rate in the juvenile system in Illinois is 50 percent, compared with 8 percent in Missouri. And we’re talking just about those who return to the juvenile system as opposed to winding up later in the adult system, a percentage that Illinois doesn’t track. […]
Those community alternatives explain a 25 percent national decline in youths under lock and key. Redeploy Illinois, a program that deals with youthful offenders without incarcerating them, is seen as a success, one that has contributed to a big drop in the state’s juvenile prison population, down to 1,100 in a system with 1,754 beds.
But it’s revealing that while Redeploy Illinois gets $3 million a year, we pay $5.3 million a year in overtime and comp time alone to workers at the youth centers, which helps to explain soaring per-bed costs.
* Doug Finke compares Gov. Pat Quinn’s announcements about new private sector jobs last week with his proposed state job cuts…
Total jobs that will be lost if the state closes all seven facilities: 2,661. That includes non-state jobs that result from the employees and the facilities themselves spending money. Then there are 88 other state jobs that Quinn says have to be eliminated because of budget cuts. Total loss: 2,749.
New jobs in Illinois, according to the press releases: 475.
So, just 2,274 more new jobs needed in Illinois to offset the state government cuts.
Piece of cake.
* Eric Zorn looks at the CTU vs. CPS tally on a longer school day…
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If you’re keeping score at home, which I happen to be, the tally looks to be stuck:
Chicago Public Schools –13
Chicago Teachers Union – 470
That’s 13 city public elementary schools where the teachers have voted to extend their classroom days by 90 minutes this year as part of the administration’s controversial Longer School Day Pioneer Program, and 470 schools where they haven’t. […]
The union says teachers at 116 schools have so far voted down the proposed waiver. The administration challenges that number and notes that the option will remain on the table until at least the end of November.
* Herman Cain won the overwhelming number of votes from this past weekend’s TeaCon Midwest 2011 Straw Poll. And Barack Obama outpolled John Huntsman. From a TeaCon Midwest press release…
10. Johnson 0%
10. Huntsman 0%
8. Obama 0.2%
7. Santorum 1.4%
6. Paul 1.8%
5. Romney 2.6%
4. Perry 3%
3. Gingrich 3.8%
2. Bachmann 9.4%
1. Cain 77.5%
* And John Fritchey wants to turn two into one…
A Cook County commissioner today is pitching the idea of merging the recorder of deeds operation into the county clerk’s office.
Commissioner John Fritchey, D-Chicago, wants the County Board to put a referendum on the November 2012 ballot asking voters to do just that. Fritchey said it could save taxpayers money.
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 11:39 am:
Ron Paul can’t get votes at a Tea Party, um, party? Last election, the western suburbs were covered with Ron Paul signs.
Is it his anti-war views that have him on the outs?
- Responsa - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 11:43 am:
==Is it his anti-war views that have him on the outs?==
No. it’s because people have figured out he’s kinda crazy.
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 12:32 pm:
Responsa, that’s a little broad and harsh.
Paul raised serious questions over the weekend as to how, without debate, review, or knowledge of any other authority, the Obama Administration has now assumed the power to assassinate American citizens who have not been charged with any crimes.
Read Paul’s op-ed on the issue. Doesn’t sound crazy to me.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/10/02/2011-10-02_an_unconstitutional_killing.html
- Ahoy - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 1:12 pm:
The $5.3 million a year in overtime and comp time along with the 50% recidivism rate seems absurd when you consider that we have a 2 to 1 ratio of employees to offender rate and we’re spending $150 - $215 K per offender. Seems like there is a lot of wasted money and it’s not helping these kids.
This is bad for Illinois and bad for the kids. The State needs to fix it and fix it now.
- G. Willickers - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 1:50 pm:
There were only ~700 people in that hotel room for the Tea Party. So The pizza guy only got around 540 votes…
This passes for a big deal in the dwindling Tea Party these days?
- amalia - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 3:37 pm:
re the James Warren column, what is Missouri doing that accounts for their success rate compared to Illinois?
also, juveniles who commit offenses which would be considered felonies if adults are a whole other kind of treatment plan vs. community treatment. once upon a time the juvenile system in Illinois under Thompson did not provide all the necessary work one would think necessary for tough offenders….drug treatment, psych, lots of evaluation. they just did not have the money.
just because they are kids does not mean they should be let out on the street. if the offense is a severe one against person, oh, you know, like sexual assault or murder, I don’t want them in a community regardless of their age.
get tougher on first time offenders…..actually adjudicate quickly, make them do community service….unless a severe offense against person….and maybe they will not grow into older offenders. what is the average number of times a kid has been station adjusted by the time they get their first hearing in Juvy?
one of the ways we grow offenders is by not dealing with them right from the start.
- Responsa - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 3:38 pm:
Word–I doubt Rich is looking for us to engage in a Constitutional debate with respect to the killing a traitorous “citizen”. But with respect to your comment above about Ron Paul’s op-ed, let’s agree that congress had authorized force against terrorists. Anwar al-Awlaki was a self-declared enemy of the United States. He was instrumental in the Ft. Hood massacre and to the planning of the Times Square bomber and the Christmas Day airplane bomber. He was at the top of the CIA most wanted list. He was named as a major threat by the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service.
Absent the practical ability to arrest him in Yemen for removal to trial in America he was caught/killed on the field of battle in the service of enemies of the United States. This was well within the Commander in Chief’s authority. Dr. Ron Paul is entitled to his opinion, but I stand firmly with President Obama on this one.
- zatoichi - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 5:08 pm:
For the Doug Finke column - focus is again only on the number of state jobs. What about the associated non-state jobs for companies that provide services to these facilities? That would include vendors, community based providers, contract workers, and any local trades servicing the facility. Then drift off to local retailers who will see a drop in sales. None of them effected at all? No layoffs there?
- walk in my shoes - Monday, Oct 3, 11 @ 7:19 pm:
Amalia - the writer should have done a little more research on Missouri’s Juvenile Justice System. There tracking of “bring backs” is not done the same as Illinois. In Illinois we track a juvenile offender until 21 years of age. I totally agree a HUGE part of the problem in the lack of accountability given to a juvenile offender from the first appearance in a court room. I have seen, first hand, juvenile’s presented in front of a judge 72 times before being committed to the department of Juvenile Justice. They have participated in Redeploy Illinois, Intense Probation, community based programs etc. and failed. This does not present the correct consequence for continued criminal behavior. Furthermore, I do not want juvenile murderer’s, sex offenders, violent habitual juvenile offenders released back into a community either. What the average citizen needs to understand is by the time a juvenile offender get sentenced to the Department of Juvenile Justice he/she has been given many opportunities through the court system to make positive changes. The juveniles you see in the department of Juvenile Justice, in most cases, have made the decision, by their actions, to be committed. They have exhaused all intervention programs.