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* Democrat Dan Hynes has a new TV ad on the early release program. The ad accuses Pat Quinn of “lying to us” and says an earlier Quinn spot is an “insult to our intelligence.” Have a look…

* As I told subscribers the other day, the Quinn administration is trying desperately to prevent any of those violent prisoners who were released early from doing any harm to victims and Quinn’s campaign…

Nearly 130 parolees released from prison early are back behind bars because of an extraordinary crackdown led by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration, which has been stung by denunciations of a secret program that freed 1,700 inmates weeks ahead of time.

The Corrections Department confirmed it has begun “intensive compliance checks” on parolees released under the program known as “MGT Push,” beginning with those who committed violent crimes.

State records reviewed by The Associated Press show the department has picked up 129 of the parolees in the last ten days, most of them serving sentences for unlawful weapons charges or battery. They’ve likely gone back to lockup for violating terms of their discharge, but officials will not comment on the reasons or confirm how many have been apprehended.

The rules they’re forced to follow are unprecedented in terms of severity, according to law enforcement officials.

This is probably a good idea, but spending so much time on those released prisoners means others may fall through the cracks.

* Did Quinn’s early release plan violate the Illinois Constitution? Maybe so…

Jennifer Bishop Jenkins is the co-founder of IllinoisVictims.org. She says victims were not notified that the convicted felons were released.

BISHOP-JENKINS: We want to know exactly what this cost-based decision was, and exactly how much it is ending up costing us. We want to know how it is that the vicitms could not have been notified of these crimes when their lives were literally in danger.

The Illinois Constitution has a provision stating that victims have the right to know when the offender is released from prison. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections says officials are looking into the claims. Governor Quinn has suspended all early release programs.

Oops.

* Yesterday, Sen. Bill Brady claimed in a press release that Gov. Quinn’s Department of Corrections was engaging in a “dangerous practice”…

“I’ve been alerted that Governor Quinn is allowing the Department of Corrections to reclassify higher level inmates to lower level facilities,” said Brady of Bloomington. “Maximum security prisoners are being sent to medium security prisons, while medium security prisoners are being sent to minimum security prisons. It’s an extremely dangerous practice that is putting our front-line correctional workers at serious risk.” […]

“It’s become abundantly clear why Governor Quinn allowed for the early release of 2,700 inmates since September,” says Brady. “He was freeing up bed space at lower level facilities to accommodate the compression of upper level inmates, ultimately making the argument that Illinois could do without the Thomson Correctional Facility as a state prison”

However, the DoC denied this was happening…

But a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections said the claims made by Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, were “inaccurate and without merit” and that “no such classification is underway other than routine classification of inmates.” […]

Brady maintained the reclassification of inmates occurred after an undocumented visit by federal authorities to the Thomson prison occurred on Sept. 21 to look at the prison as a possible replacement for the controversial Guantanamo Bay facility. Corrections Department officials did not have a response on whether such a visit occurred.

But corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said the reclassification of inmates is something the agency and correctional systems throughout the country “do routinely when an inmate is transferred or has disciplinary problems” and that “offenders rarely remain at the same security level throughout their incarcerations.”

* Related…

* Quinn signs bill restricting early prison release

* Quinn fast-tracks minimum sentence legislation

* New law restricts early-release programs for prisoners

* SJ-R Opinion: Early release questions must be answered

* Quinn stands behind corrections director: Gov. Pat Quinn says Corrections Director Michael Randle is the right leader for the state’s prison system, even after embarrassing early release programs created a major headache for the governor in recent weeks.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 9:29 am

Comments

Section 8.1 of the Constitution provides that crime victims have:

“The right to information about the conviction, sentence, imprisonment, and release of the accused.”

There’s nothing in there about notification per se, although clearly information must be made available upon request.

If there’s a notification requirement in statute, that’s a different story, although I find it unimaginable that the DOC failed to follow it.

If they did, Randle is a goner.

And I hereby nominate Rep. Sacia — once again — to replace him.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 9:42 am
Nothing new in Hynes ad really. Those who are voting against Quinn for this gaffe, and his handling of it, are already there. I don’t think this pushes anyone else off the edge that wasn’t already off it.

Comment by Niles Township Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 9:50 am
Hynes is all in now. After this, you can’t see either one of these two even offering up the pretense of supporting the other after the primary.

So now we have an accelerated dragnet of parole violations in order to round up the guys who were released early. There go any “savings,” nickel and dime as they were.

What horrible judgement and execution by the governor’s office. If Hyne’s can keep his spots on the air, this might beat Quinn yet.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 9:52 am
I wonder how victims could be assured of receiving timely information given the wording of section 8.1. Does that mean they have to call the state every day and ask if the convict has been released? (are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?) If the state has no burden to inform then the right to information is near useless. Just sayin’.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 9:52 am
The commerical dan hynes is filling the airwaves with is a hateful, fearmongering, approach. The early release program has been halted by Governor Quinn. Dan Hynes needs to be told this fearmongering has to stop.

Blaming the early release program is a political distraction. What will make us safer is a prison systme that provides rehabilitative services, including effective after care support. The problem is a lack of political will to deal with an understaffed, overworked prison system with crumbling physical plants and without effective programming, as well as a culture that believes that warehousing people in cells with magically result in changed behaviour.

Comment by bill ryan Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 9:57 am
Let’s see: Legislators and the executive branch want to reduce the bloated prisoner population (risen from 18 to 46 thousand in just a decade or so), in order to save money and lower the 50% recidivism rate, BUT they can’t let anybody out who could possibly commit a crime. This is an example of political cowardice on the part of Quinn, duplicity on the part of Hynes, stupidity on the part of legislators, and blindness on the part of the press. Oh, and let me add that ‘victim advocates’ share some of the blame. They should not determine punishment — that is for the community as a whole to decide. What is REALLY needed is re-entry programs and mental health treatment so that released prisoners have a path back into society and productivity,

Comment by moby Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 10:01 am
You know for all the carping about this whole scandal–nobody has suggested ways to address the root problem. That problem is prison overcrowding and how to house all these people who have committed crimes. In a perfect world, we would have all the space and money to do it effectively. Guess what–it’s not a perfect world. Illinois is broke!!. Out of sight-out of mind. It’s easy for the average citizen to ignore the problem, except when something like this happens–and then they are angry because the governing body didn’t do what they wanted them to do. Of course all of these same citizens will bitch up a storm if their taxes are raised to cover the expenses of building new prisons and housing these people. Most people want the best of both worlds. We want the bad guys gone, and we don’t want to pay for it!! Right now the governing body–the State of Illinois has neither the space or the resources to handle the entire prison population. Something had/has to give somewhere!!

My solution–get rid of prison sentances for non-violent drug offenders.

train111

Comment by train111 Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 10:02 am
Given the state of our state, and the lack of jobs out there, especially for parolees, I wonder how these rates of return to prison differ from normal circumstances not involving any early releases. This may reflect what is happening regularly, but minus the added diligence of getting some of these guys back in jail. The spotlight still needs to focus on our dire economic conditions especially in those communities most impacted by crime.

Comment by vole Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 10:12 am
Hey train111,

How do we punish these so called “non-violent” drug offenders? I suppose we could put an ankle bracelet on but how would that stop them from using and/or selling from their home?

I wonder how much the system would be overcrowded if Thomson prison had been brought online to full capacity as it was suppposed to?

I agree with your analysis that the citizens don’t want to come to grips with the problem.
However, your solution doesn’t address the complex issues involved here.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 10:16 am
the other side of the coin is after Hynes loses on 2/2, who will still talk to him? He has a lot of nerve appealing to the lowest common denominator to further his glorious political career…

Comment by Loop Lady Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 10:51 am
The Hynes ad reminds me of the Willie Horton ads in 1988. The ad tells us more about Hynes than it does about Quinn. By the way, how come nobody has called Quinn on lying about having “fumigated” state government.

Comment by preservationist Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 10:53 am
=The Hynes ad reminds me of the Willie Horton ads in 1988. The ad tells us more about Hynes than it does about Quinn.=

How’d that work out for Dukakis?

Fumigation? What fumigation? There are so many things PQ has not done or said he has done and didn’t do that the fumigation was likely lost in the shuffle.

I don’t think PQ is deliberately lying. I think he is so out of his depth that he can’t function properly.

Too bad, he is a decent fellow. Are there any decent folk out there who can run a state gov’t? Maybe those 2 requirements are incompatible.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 11:05 am
I watched the video of Quinn’s Q & A session with the SJ-R editorial board. For some strange reason i watched part 2 before part 1. part 2 was dominated by the early prison release debacle, and as it turned out so was part 1.

As i watched part 1, i found myself wanting to believe Quinn, but somethings held me back. he came across as believable, but he also came across as believeable in early december when he held a press conference and raked hynes over the coals in a 15 minute diatribe about how hynes was uncooperative etc. for not signing off on the $500million borrowing plan. as people will recall this was the press conference where quinn said repeatedly said that alexi g. had already signed off and was totally “on board.” but we learned that same day that was not true–in fact it was very far from the truth!

then i thought of Quinn’s dreadful and discredited spa attack ad on hynes. interestingly during his time talking to the sr-j ed board, quinn suggested that instead getting help from hynes on budgeting issues, hynes was busy running for the AG’s office. I don’t recall that at all. But, didn’t the spa ad claim that hynes was vacationing and hob-knobbing in D.C.? So, now the story is that hynes was running for attorney general and ignoring the state’s fiscal crisis leaving poor pat and jesse white to be the only two to care? just as an aside…i do recall that alexi g. was in greece with sen. durbin. and for the sake of accuracy alexi g. is the only illinois pol who comes to mind worrying about his political ambitions in the late winter/early spring of 2009. (i’m not trying to say that alexi g. was necessarily wrong for that, but i wonder if sometimes Quinn is not confused about people and situations?)

at the sj-r meeting quinn touted his being honesty repeatedly. but, i wondered why he allowed his campaign to run with an attack ad against hynes to trial lawyers. the ad was doctored to make hynesappear to be saying things that he not actually said (in full context).

finally, i was reminded of quinn falling asleep at a debate and how his campaign denied that he did for days. it took jack conanty of fox32, who is greatly missed, to get the truth out of quinn. conaty got quinn to admit that he did in fact nod off. sadly quinn’s voice went soft when he was forced to admit the truth he had for days tried to conceal. the admission came at the tail-end of
interview, all prior to that quinn’s voice was strong.

i also noticed that quinn repeatedly interjected the burial trust fund into his Q & A with the sr-j. the issue hasn’t gotten much traction, and apparently quinn is very bothered by it. not bothered that people lost monies due to the mismanagement of the trust funds, but bothered by the fact that his weeklong plus attempts to deflect attention from the early prison release issues failed. and, that’s very telling about quinn. he’s had ample opportunity to bring up the burial trust fund matter prior to last week. it was also very telling how he tried to mix burr oak with the burial trust fund issue.

Quinn is kinda sneaky. prior to last year who knew? who would have thunk it?

Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 11:19 am
oh, and i forgot…

during the sj-r Q & A quinn mentioned that when edgar was governor he signed off on short term borrowing as treasurer and never played politics—he signed off because for the good of the people of illinois.

yeah, but he conveniently forgot about the time that he didn’t. rick pearson of the tribune wrote recently about the time that quinn didn’t sign off and how what he said at the time is nearly the exact same thing that hynes said in deciding not to sign off.

quinn is kinda sneaky. yup.

Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 11:23 am
I think Brady is probably accurate about declassification of prisoners. Randall gave three different answers to this question at the Thomson hearing — he was falling all over himself. The declassification of max’s to med’s was ordered at Menard (500 0f them) in the spring of 2008, the last time DOC was going to close 1500 beds at Stateville. It just stands to reason that it is being done, again.

Comment by hearingattendee Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 11:51 am
My solution–get rid of prison sentances for non-violent drug offenders.

train111

This won’t help nearly as much as most people believe, at least in Illinois. There are not many prisoners who are in there for a first or multi-time drug offense. You would be surprised how many times you can get convicted of something and still get probation. Prisoners typically have a mix of violent, property, and drug charges (or 2 of the 3) in their background. The guy who is in there for possession of Marijuana probably has a bunch of prior arrests for things like burglary, firearms charges, battery, parole violations, etc. If you look at just their current incarceration offense, you get a misleading picture of who is really behind bars.

Comment by Anon Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 1:07 pm
Brady is correct that the feds were at Thomson the week of Sep. 21st. I just verified it, and I am ticked — nothing but a bunch of liars in this state. The people knew nothing until mid November, were told the letter from the Thomson Mayor was sent in November. What say you, Mike Jacobs? This was your testimony. Meanwhile, those current Thomson prisoners were to go to Moline, but they are supposedly down to 60 beds, and double bunking is going on in Dixon to free 100 beds for the receipt of the round up of the early release criminals. Oh, the web we weave!

Comment by hearingattendee Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 8:50 pm
Hynes looks desperate in these commercials. I just don’t see him gaining any ground. He should talk about jobs and the economy and what his vision is for the state. The average voter doesn’t actually believe Quinn is behind these early releases and are they not back in prison. Fear mongering is a page out of the national republican apparatus. I truly believe it fails among democratic primary voters. I still see Quinn winning by 20 points.

Comment by anon Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 11:26 pm
IL prisons are old and falling apart, not to mention overcrowded. 2 full grown men live in a cage about the size of your average bathroom, with bunk beds, sink and toilet. No room to hardly move. There are no education programs, and no prison jobs. There is nothing for them to do all day and night except read and sleep as the years pass by. some day most will have the cage door opened and be told to go and be productive citizens! And what happens with no money, no job, and no where to live? They end up right back in the system. What did citizens and politicians expect would happen? Angels with job skills would walk out those gates after 10 to 20 or more years of living worse than a zoo animal? The reality is that taxes will have to be raised to pay for the proper treatment of criminals which MUST include counseling, education, job skill training, and humane treatment during incarceration. (NOT country club treatment, but humane!) If you choose not to improve the penal system, then expect a repeat of what has been happening.

Comment by april Friday, Jan 15, 10 @ 11:35 pm