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* Republican gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Kirk Dillard wants a legislative probe, with full subpoena powers, into the botched early prisoner release plan. From a press release…
State Senator Kirk Dillard today issued a letter to Senate and House Leaders urging for immediate action against Governor Quinn surrounding the second early release program and calling for a special session of the Committee of the Whole with full subpoena authority to gather the facts and repercussions.
“Quinn’s program raises additional troubling questions about how the administration is managing our state prisons and working in concert with prosecutors and victims,” Dillard begins in his letter to General Assembly leaders. “Governor Quinn and his administration continue to provide vastly different stories about these programs including who made the decision to authorize the early release, why violent criminals were included in the program, and why the MGT program was secretive. Far too many questions remain unanswered about these discretionary early release programs which could continue to have dramatic repercussions on our criminal justice system,” the letter states.
“Quinn is the only one accountable for this consequential error in judgment,” Dillard added. “His ‘word’ that he was left in the dark regarding a highly sensitive issue like early release is nothing short of deceit. Trying to place blame on Director of Prisons, Michael Randle is unacceptable and unprofessional,” Dillard said. “On issues such as public safety or homeland security the buck stops with the Governor. With all the people of Illinois have faced from the Blagojevich/Quinn Administrations, they not only deserve answers but also peace of mind,” said Dillard.
“I know that Illinois Legislators share the common goal of safety for each and every citizen of Illinois. We must work together to increase transparency, fully evaluate the programs, and explore all possible remediation measures,” Dillard wrote.
Dillard is a member of the Senate Criminal Law Judiciary committee, which oversees the Corrections Department, and a former co-chair of the panel.
There are some Democrats pushing quietly behind the scenes for a legislative probe, but Speaker Madigan just got back from vacation today, so nothing’s been decided - or even really discussed at the highest levels. But don’t hold your breath.
*** UPDATE *** From AFSCME…
In a letter sent today to Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 called for the immediate creation of “a special joint task force, including legislators from both parties and both chambers, to answer urgent questions about the administration of the corrections department.”
AFSCME is the state’s largest union of public-service workers. Its members include some 11,000 frontline employees of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“Recent events and news reports reveal a system spiraling out of control. Yet Governor Pat Quinn’s most substantive action has been to create new appointees answerable solely to him,” AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer wrote. “This response is wholly inadequate on its face.”
Bayer added: “[W]e are alarmed by the premature release of nearly 2,000 inmates through two IDOC initiatives—one conducted in secret—that have put violent and repeat offenders back in Illinois communities, despite pledges to the contrary. News reports indicate that many of these individuals have already committed new crimes. … Now, more than two weeks after the secret program was revealed, we still know almost nothing about how it was conceived, designed, approved or implemented. The public deserves a full accounting of who in IDOC management or the governor’s office authorized or was aware of the MGT Push program.”
Further, Bayer pointed out, “for years AFSCME has raised concerns about reckless budget cuts, mismanagement and neglect that have left state prisons severely short of staff”. Yet it appears that the premature-release programs were intended to “justify the governor’s threatened layoff of more than 1,000 prison employees.”
Bayer emphasized that “state prisons are increasingly dangerous” due to lack of staff, noting recent “disturbing outbreaks of violence” by prison inmates against employees at the Pinckneyville, Hill, Dixon, Pontiac, Illinois River, Logan and other facilities.
“These crises cannot be allowed to fester. Past patterns of cuts, mismanagement and neglect must not be repeated,” Bayer concluded. “The legislature has both the power to oversee the operation of state prisons, and the responsibility to serve as a co-equal check on the executive branch. In that capacity, I urge you to appoint a special joint task force to seek answers to these mushrooming scandals for the benefit of the people of Illinois.”
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 11:53 am
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I can conduct the investigation myself and save the taxpayers lots of money. I’ll just ask the Gvernor if he screwed up.
Oh wait, he already admitted that. There ya go.
Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:14 pm
Sun Times said in their endorsement of Quinn that they like that he admitted this mistake.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:19 pm
Yea, PJW, he was real brave to admit that Mike Randle made a mistake. Real profile in courage, that.
Comment by Southwest Sider Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:31 pm
-Governor Quinn and his administration continue to provide vastly different stories about these programs including who made the decision to authorize the early release-
Earth to Kirk Dillard. The MGT Program has been around since the late 1970’s. You should know, because you were one of the lawmakers who worked in a bipartisan fashion to tighten the sentencing laws in the 1990’s. The reforms of the 1990’s didn’t do anything to stop the MGT program. Are you saying the MGT program is new news to you? Unreal.
Comment by Big Policy Nerd Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:39 pm
Blah, blah, blah…slow news day with the storm…
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:39 pm
What…every January we have to investigate our governor? /s
I am glad someone is taking this ball and running with it…
Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:39 pm
Just wondering where the Speaker would vacation…
Comment by Fan of Cap Fax Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:47 pm
I am not even for Quinn, but hey, he at leased “manned up” and apologized and that is his resonsibility to do so. However, mistakes happen and I do feel that some of his underlings let him down. Does the average voter actually believe Quinn knew these serious criminals were getting out of jail? I don’t think so. Hynes, to me looks like a big crybaby. Hey it’s over, let’s move on. Maybe let’s talk about foreclosures and unemployment. Are we going to see endless commercials the rest of the month on this issue? Voters know better. God help us.
Comment by anon Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 12:50 pm
“Dillard is a member of the Senate Criminal Law Judiciary committee, which oversees the Corrections Department, and a former co-chair of the panel.”
So he is doing his job as a member of the committee? Where is the news? Why did it take him so long? It is his job as a minority Senator to over see the majority and keep them in line. Dillard has been there 19 years not including his time with Thompson and Edgar (Did I mention he was Edgars chief of staff?) why shoukld we pat him on the back for doing what we pay him for?
The Governor candidates with experience are showing why we need new blood to lead.
Comment by conservative Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:02 pm
“Hey it’s over, let’s move on.”
Sure, tell it to the victims of the criminals that Quinn released early. It’s not over because as long as the criminals released early re-offend the issue lingers and remains relevant. This issue never had to happen if Quinn had not made the decision that he did to allow it. So, don’t get mad at the messengers. It is an important issue regardless of which governor it happended under. It just so happens that it has happened under Quinn, which means that it is relevant—he’s currently in office.
You want to talk economy and foreclosure, that stuff was talked about all of last year. And, as it happens both of those issues are related to the early prison release programs.
if you’re truly tired of the early prison release issue you can move—I doubt that anyone is forcing you to pay attention and comment. It’s funny that you mention only Hynes when this thread is actually about Dillard, as per the ol’ red headline banner at the top of the thread.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:17 pm
-Manned up?- Quinn didn’t man up to anything. He threw his Director under the bus for insubordination. The question I have is why did he not fire Randle to stop the bleeding? Quinn would look better in the public eye, and he could then move on. He has not done that and there has to be a pretty good reason for not taking that action. That is why this remains and will remain a very big problem for Quinn.
Comment by siu alum Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:17 pm
there’s absolutely NO political motivation to Bayer’s request for an inquiry…and if you believe that..
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:46 pm
I don’t want to go out on a limb here, but I take it more prisoners means more jobs for AFCSME. It kinda makes me cringe when organizations with a stake in keeping people locked up are trying to keep people locked up. It’s like those privately run prisons who hire lobbyist to push for longer prison terms.
I must commend the union for their self serving exploitation of Quinn’s dilemma, however, I would caution anyone against paying any credence to their request.
Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:50 pm
The average voter will have a hard time separating this water droplet from the Chinese Water torture of news dripping out on Governor Quinn’s management of the Department of Corrections:
Thursday, January 7, 2010 1:15 PM CST
3 IL prisoners still on lam after escaping lockup
Authorities say they have few clues as they hunt for three federal prisoners who bolted from a detention center near the southern Illinois town of Ullin (UHL’-lihn).
The U.S. Marshals Service isn’t saying how the men escaped Wednesday from the Tri-County Detention Center in Pulaski County but considers them armed and dangerous.
Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Karen Simons said Thursday that authorities don’t know if the men stayed together.
She says 35-year-old Rodney Brown of Alton, who’d been held on a weapons charge, has connections in Alton and Rockford. Twenty-eight-year-old drug defendant Thomas Glaab (GLOB) of Anna has relations in southern Illinois. And 35-year-old Miguel Robles-Moya of Chicago may have connections there and in northern Indiana.
Perception; it’s the new reality.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:52 pm
LL, just keep clapping louder. I’m sure that’ll make it all go away. lol
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:52 pm
{Thursday, January 7, 2010 1:15 PM CST
3 IL prisoners still on lam after escaping lockup }
Of course this will also become the Poster Child in the ongoing campaign against moving the Gitmo Gang to Thomson as well.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:54 pm
What ever happened to truth in sentencing. A convicted felon gets 6 years in prison for weapons charges does 2 years and gets out and murders a 16 year old H.S. student. This guy should of been in prison if he was in prison it would not be a stroy.
Comment by Fed up Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 1:55 pm
{Thomas M. Glaab, 28, Rodney L. Brown, 35, and Miguel Robles-Moya, 35, escaped from Tri-County Detention Center on Wednesday. U.S. Marshals, Illinois State Police and local police are following leads, but had no news Wednesday evening of the fugitives’ whereabouts.
The three men are considered armed and dangerous.}
Armed and dangerous; now those are some endearing qualities to have roaming about the state, with less than 30 days before the Primary Election.
What is the statute on bounty hunting in Illinois? Maybe the ISRA can coordinate a posse of private sector capitalists to pitch and and help out on the search mission.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:00 pm
It looks like the kerfuffle has turned into a truffle!
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:00 pm
Rich, if only…lol
Comment by Loop Lady Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:10 pm
QTS
Those are federal inmates.
Comment by Wow Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:12 pm
After thinking about my previous post something else came to mind, Pat Quinn had no problem calling on the entire U of I Board of Trustees to resign but doesn’t feel that Randle needs to go under those same guidelines? Something stinks.
Comment by siu alum Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:13 pm
SIU Quinn backed down and showed no backbone when 2 trustees told him no. He was afraid to upset the minority base and showed himself to be a coward.
Comment by Fed up Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:20 pm
Wow,
Congratulations; you are not the average voter.
My position on this still stands however:
{The average voter will have a hard time separating this water droplet from the Chinese Water torture of news dripping out on Governor Quinn’s management of the Department of Corrections}
Remember- perception; it’s the new reality.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 2:35 pm
But yet no one has asked a critical fundamental question….
are these folks comitting crimes BECAUSE they were let out early? perhaps the real issue is not that these crimnals were let out 12 months or so earlier, perhaps the problem is that we do nothing to try and keep criminals from re-offending… such as pay for those pesky social service programs to educate, find jobs, provide shelter, rehab etc.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 3:09 pm
Come on Ghost. do prisons rehabilitate/correct or do they warehouse? Resources are scarce, so it would hardly make sense to make anymore of an investment in prison inmates than is already made. We are paying 24K per inmate. They get food, shelter and amentities, which is sometimes more than their victims get.
The Jennifer Hall the lady Derrick King and girlfriend brutally beat over a cigarette lost 20 teeth and had to get her entire head stiched, suffers seizures etc., and she was stuck with expensive medical bills. he does 13 months in county, pleads guilty, to a lesser charge, gets 3 years (minues 13 months for time served in the county jail)and when finally sent to prison is released early under MGT Push.
King is in his late 40s or early 50s. What is salvagable about him (at this point)?
Unfortunately too many prison inmates where lost the day that they born. They had the misfortune of being born to someone who couldn’t or didn’t care to properly provide for them.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 3:48 pm
Unfortunately too many prison inmates where lost the day that they born. They had the misfortune of being born to someone who couldn’t or didn’t care to properly provide for them.
You are being way too rough and haven’t really dealt with mentoring children with these kinds of backgrounds and experiences. Trust me, these children are innocent angels with an unimaginable bounty of hope within them.
No human being is a mistake.
Except Rod Blagojevich. Who really wasn’t set up to be a mistake. He was set up to be a hair model.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 4:13 pm
Well I for one appreciate AFSCME Director Henry Bayer. The general public doesn’t want to know what goes on in an understaffed prison. We’ve had workers raped , assaulted and taken hostage at work. Do you go to a job everyday and have to think about that happening to you? It’s happening! And these same inmates are being released back into our home towns. So yes we want them behind bars as long as we don’t know what goes on in there huh?
Comment by front line worker Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 4:44 pm
VM,
I have actually worked with children in a mentoring capacity. I agree that my stance is harsh. And I’ve neen called out before for “lacking compassion” by my father who was social worker. If I ruled the world no child would go unloved and uncared for, and all children would come from safe, stable and nurturing homes. But, when it comes to choices involving scarce public resources I’m sorry, but violent criminals just don’t make the grade for me. I can’t justify the use of scarce resources on them when others (i.e. crime victims) are more deserving and needy.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 5:08 pm
ILLINOIS INSTITUTE
FOR COMMUNITY LAW
3629 South Prairie Avenue
Chicago, Il 60653
MEDIA ADVISORY January 6, 2010
(773) 548-7230
Fax: 773-548-5224 For more information:
Nadya Pittendrigh
773-241-4155
Bill Ryan 708-531-9923
708-574-8056 (cell)
Jean Maclean Snyder 773-285-5100
312-505-9444 (cell)
Reform Advocates Assail Public Outcry Against The Early Release Programs
Community Leaders Describe The Real Problems and Deliver A New Year Plan for Making
Communities Safer
CHICAGO - A coalition of prison-oriented organizations, religious groups, lawyers, and ex-prisoners and their families and friends held a press conference today in Chicago where they called on politicians and journalists to focus on the true critical problems facing Illinois’ Department of Corrections, not the early release programs that have been so frequently in the news.
“Corrections Director Mike Randle is not the problem,” said Bill Ryan, editor of Stateville Speaks, a publication about criminal justice written in collaboration with current Illinois prisoners. “The problem is not early release; it is the lack of political will on the part of our leaders to deal with an understaffed, overcrowded prison system with crumbling physical plants, and a culture that believes that warehousing people in cells will magically result in changed behavior,” Ryan said.
“The idea that shaving 37 days off a prisoner’s sentence will scare anybody straight – or prevent his rehabilitation – is silly,” said Jean Maclean Snyder, an attorney, who has represented prisoners including those seeking meritorious good time. “The focus should be on adopting the strategies that we know can cut recidivism. And politicians can’t use money as an excuse because many successful strategies save money – even in the short run.”
Ryan and the other speakers presented a list of ten proposed New Year’s Resolutions for the Department of Corrections that he and other speakers said would in fact make communities safer. The list (attached) includes increasing educational and job programming, improving medical and mental health care, and removing barriers for volunteers to help with programming.
-more-
Mark L. Heyrman, Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law
School, described programs necessary to help mentally ill prisoners. “Approximately 4500 seriously mentally ill prisoners are released each year. We could dramatically reduce recidivism if we provided adequate treatment in prison and linked patients to community mental health centers when they leave – but we don’t do that,” Heyrman said. “Prisoners are entitled to adequate treatment, and we are entitled to be safer,” Heyrman noted. Shaena Fazal, John Howard Association, observed, “maximum security prisons have virtually no programming, even though prisoners housed there will eventually be released to the community.”
At the press conference, former prisoners spoke of former corrections programs – now abolished – that allowed them to obtain education and job skills. Duffie Clark, incarcerated for 34 years and now a staffer at Uptown People’s Law Center, recounted how his life changed for the better years ago when, under a program long-cancelled, he obtained his bachelor’s degree while incarcerated.
The advocates, professionals, attorneys, and prisoners’ and family members who attended the conference vowed to monitor the Department’s efforts. They said they would report on the agency’s progress in addressing the issues outlined in their list of New Year’s Resolutions.
Comment by bill ryan Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 7:06 pm
PROPOSED NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
1 GET REAL about prisoner release and re‐entry. There are 45,000
prisoners in Illinois and a three‐year recidivism rate of over 50 per cent.
Plainly, some prisoners given early release will re‐commit crimes. The
Department of Corrections, legislators, and journalists must educate the
community about the need to shrink the swollen prison population and
the unavoidable risks associated with returning former prisoners to their
communities.
2. REDUCE RISK by improving re‐entry programs and alternatives to
prison. Currently, prisoners are released to the towns and cities of Illinois
with virtually no preparation for their new lives on the outside. To cut
recidivism rates and lower the high cost of imprisonment, we must
increase and improve re‐entry programs and establish effective
community‐based programs for nonviolent offenders as alternatives to
prison. There is simply no other option.
3. GO PUBLIC with the real cost of prisons. Gov. Quinn and state
legislators know the state budget is in crisis and have proposed some
good solutions. But the governor needs to review escalating prison costs,
publish the numbers, and suggest real savings. Dealing with the crisis is
the people’s business. We have a right to know.
4. DON’T BLAME THE MANAGER IF THE TEAM IS FAILING. In the
short time that Michael Randle has been the agency’s director, he has
provided a level of professionalism, transparency, and innovativeness
that the Department has not seen in years. Yes, the Governor should
hold his IDOC Director accountable for any failures, but he should first
give him a fair chance to do his job.
5. HELP MENTALLY ILL PRISONERS. The prisons have taken the
place of shuttered mental hospitals, but are inadequate to the job.
Mental health diagnosis and treatment needs to be vastly improved, and
released prisoners with mental illnesses must be transitioned to
community mental health centers. We suggest that the Department
appoint an outside psychiatrist to review current policies and propose
better ways to serve this vulnerable population and at the same time
protect the public.
6. NO ONE SHOULD DIE IN PRISON FROM MEDICAL NEGLECT. The
Department’s expensive and shabby medical system needs a major
overhaul in order to save money AND save lives. The medical horror
stories recently recounted to the Illinois House Prison Reform Committee
reveal that the system is broken.
7. A PRISON IS NOT A WAREHOUSE. The Department must increase
programs, especially educational programs, for all prisoners. These need
not cost money. Free programming by Horizons and Impact of Crimes On
Victims Class, for example, have been delayed for too long. They should
be implemented at once, and additional programming should be put in
place. Idle prison hands (and minds) are the devil’s workshop!
8. LET OUR VOLUNTERS IN! The Department must find a better way
to use volunteers – from faith‐based, civic, charitable, educational and
other organizations ‐‐ to provide free education and training for
prisoners. Currently, the Department actually discourages or forbids
many volunteers, and uses a cumbersome approval system. We propose
that the Department appoint a person to coordinate volunteerism who
reports directly to Dir. Randle. Opening up the prison to the community
is a way to ensure that future released prisoners find a secure place back
in society.
9. END LOCKDOWN OF LONG‐TERM PRISONERS. The Department
houses all prisoners with more than twenty years left to serve in
maximum security prisons, regardless of their behavior, and also decrees
that almost no programming take place at those prisons. IDOC should
halt this misguided policy and start rewarding good behavior with
programming and job training.
10. ACTION NOT PROMISES AT TAMMS. Corrections director
Randle has proposed a Ten Point Plan for reform at the supermax. While
the changes do not go far enough to reduce the physical and
psychological damage caused by long‐term solitary confinement, they are
at least a step in the right direction and must be enshrined in law or
administrative code. Keeping men for a decade or more in isolation at a
cost of $94,000 per prisoner per year is a human rights AND a fiscal
tragedy.
Prepared by Jean Maclean Snyder
For Press Conference on Prison Reform
January 7, 2010
Comment by bill ryan Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 7:08 pm
Look at Progress IL on this issue today. AFSME and the rest of us ought to get behind re-entry and anti-recidivism programming because everyone wins in that scenario. The issue is not whether you let people out two weeks or even a month early (which is what this early release program was doing). The issue is whether or not they have skills, treatment, and re-entry support because if not, they’re going to re-offend. If “bleeding heart” positions get on your nerves, then think of this as a practical law-enforcement matter — if you reduce the recidivism rate by even a little bit, you significantly impact the crime rate. We all need to get with the programs!
http://progressillinois.com/2010/1/7/prison-reformers-early-release#comments
Comment by Anti-Recidivism = Crime Control Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 9:02 pm
AFSCME is just throwing a fast ball under the Governor’s chin to get his attention, in exchange for that recent threat of big layoffs that was halted by the courts and still needs to come to some conclusion. It is part of the eternal dance of negotiations as much as it is about the true needs of the IDOC workers.
Comment by Some Guy Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 11:36 pm
–”I don’t want to go out on a limb here, but I take it more prisoners means more jobs for AFCSME. It kinda makes me cringe when organizations with a stake in keeping people locked up are trying to keep people locked up. It’s like those privately run prisons who hire lobbyist to push for longer prison terms.
I must commend the union for their self serving exploitation of Quinn’s dilemma, however, I would caution anyone against paying any credence to their request. “–
Perhaps, if the entire letter had been linked to , PJW, you’d be able to stop cringing and see that the focus of concern is not ‘all about jobs’.
Comment by Cindy Lou Friday, Jan 8, 10 @ 7:48 am
Explain me this: A guy commits a felony and gets sentenced to 6 months. In the normal course of things, he gets out after 3 months. With Randle and Quinn’s “secret” release program, he gets out in 1 1/2 months, saving the taxpayers a bunch of money. What the big deal? This is an election in search of a scandal.
Comment by moby Friday, Jan 8, 10 @ 4:29 pm
===What the big deal? ===
If you can’t figure out that secretly rewarding criminals for no purpose is, indeed, a big deal, then you are beyond all hope.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 8, 10 @ 5:12 pm
Of the 1,700 people released early from prison, the “many” who have re-offended are 6. That’s less than 1% of the people who were released early. Since when does less than 1% equate to “many.” When the recidivism rate in IL is above 50%, the focus should be on programming to prevent re-offending and not on the people who were released 30 days early.
Comment by Concerned in Chicago Monday, Jan 11, 10 @ 10:33 am