* A confidential report says the former guv had a substance abuse problem….
A probation report says ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich may be a “ripe candidate’’ for a drug treatment program in prison.
That’s according to defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky, who says he doesn’t know what Blagojevich said to a probation officer to lead to that conclusion.
Judge James Zagel has agreed to recommend Blagojevich for a drug treatment program when he starts his 14-year prison sentence for corruption in March.
More…
A prisons spokesman told the Sun-Times last week there typically has to be a documented history of abuse for an inmate to qualify.
[Blagojevich attorney Shelly Sorosky] said there is documentation. […]
The report came after a summer interview between Blagojevich and a probation officer, Sorosky said. Sorosky said he did not know the nature of what Blagojevich told the probation officer about substance abuse at the time — a few weeks after his June conviction — but it caused a recommendation to the judge.
I never saw the governor drink more than a tiny bit of alcohol, but, then again, I wasn’t around him that much in the evenings.
A successful completion of the program could shave a year off his sentence and allow him to go to a halfway house six months before the end of that sentence.
* Meanwhile, I can’t disagree with Scott Reeder’s conclusion…
Blagojevich soon will leave for prison, but the most lasting scars he left on the state may have nothing to with his criminality.
Amen.
