* Gov. Rauner continues to talk about getting out of judicial consent decrees…

“There’s more of a mindset of ‘boy, we’ve gotta do something different.’ That’s one of the, I guess, small side benefits is people are willing to be more creative and aggressive and rethinking how government works.”

Meanwhile the state is spending more than it’s bringing in because of court orders and consent decrees, something Rauner wants to reverse.

“Other governors have ignored that and that’s cost more spending and bad policy. I want to work out a plan where every court order gets dealt with and goes away, consent decrees go away, so the government is actually being run proactively to benefit the taxpayers and the citizens who are receiving services”

OK, that’s a laudable goal. The state had to enter into those consent decrees because it was violating laws, so it’s easier said than done. Even so, it’s a laudable goal.

* But what Rauner hasn’t mentioned so far is that his administration entered into yet another consent decree just last month…

“The place is a cacophonous madhouse,” said Alan S. Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center, who has visited the facility [Built in 1925 and known as the “roundhouse,” the circular jail at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet].

Mills and others, including the Illinois Department of Corrections, hope that a settlement reached last month in a class-action lawsuit will provide relief from this place to some of the prison system’s most vulnerable — its more than 11,000 mentally ill inmates.

The settlement in a case filed in 2007 brings some widespread changes to the state’s mental health care system for inmates, which experts said desperately lags behind national standards. The settlement will lead to Illinois’ first psychiatric hospital for prisoners and will allow the hiring of more than 300 mental health professionals.

In a change germane to those living at the roundhouse, the settlement will replace a policy that often puts the mentally ill in segregation, meaning they are left in their cells for nearly 24 hours a day and often constantly monitored to prevent suicide attempts. While this may prevent suicide, Mills said it often causes the mentally ill to “decompensate.”

* And the ACLU of Illinois has offered its thoughts on the matter…

Yesterday, in a series of interviews marking his first year in office, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said that a “big part” of his administration’s plan going forward would be to seek release from court oversight in various federal consent decrees to which the State of Illinois has agreed.

The American Civil Liberties Union currently represents clients in five ( 5 ) such consent decrees, addressing care for children under the care of the Department of Children and Family Services, youth detained by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice as well as people with intellectual, physical and psychiatric disabilities who have been needlessly warehoused in large institutions and want to live in community-based settings.

Because of this experience and involvement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois issued the following statement about the Governor’s comments. The following can be attributed to Edwin C. Yohnka, Director of Communications and Public Policy at the ACLU of Illinois:

Governor Rauner should know that adherence to terms of a consent decrees is not a political option to be debated in the media. These agreements exist because the State violated the law — often over decades — in ways that impose significant harms to our clients and others in Illinois. If he possesses a magic wand to fix the challenges faced by children in the child welfare system, youth being incarcerated or people with disabilities after years of neglect by the State, we hope the Governor uses the magic soon. The reality is that the way to make getting out of consent decrees a “big part” of his agenda is to bring the State’s dysfunctional systems in compliance with the law by improving the way the State provides services and supports to people who depend on its help.

We look forward to engaging in that work, rather than debating ideological rhetoric.

*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…

The DOC matter was not a consent decree, but simply a settlement agreement. We worked hard to demonstrate to the court that a consent decree was not necessary and the Court agreed. This, in fact, proves the opposite point. This is the first victory of the Governor’s in his efforts to reduce the # of consent decrees the state is tangled in.

Also, the Governor’s point, of course, was not that we are going to get out of the consent decrees by not complying, but rather come up with compliance plans to comply with the decree so we can ask the Court to allow us to exit. We actually agree with the ACLU.