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Pritzker: Prisoner Review Board member domestic violence training will be enhanced

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Illinois
Burris

* Subscribers were told about the topic today. Here’s some background from the Tribune…

The state’s top parole official resigned from his post [last] Monday after his board allowed a parolee with a history of violence against women to be released from state custody before, authorities say, he attacked a pregnant woman he once dated and killed her 11-year-old son when the child came to her rescue.

Donald Shelton served on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board for more than a decade and led the 13-member panel since last year. His resignation was announced Monday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker hours after the governor also disclosed that one of Shelton’s board members, LeAnn Miller, quit her post for her role in allowing Crosetti Brand, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins, to be released from custody following a hearing to determine whether he violated his parole. […]

“The Prisoner Review Board must be able to operate independently as they review enormously difficult cases, but I believe LeAnn Miller has made the correct decision in stepping down from her role,” Pritzker said a statement Monday. “It is clear that evidence in this case was not given the careful consideration that victims of domestic violence deserve and I am committed to ensuring additional safeguards and training are in place to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.” […]

The governor’s office said he will be working with the Illinois General Assembly in the coming weeks to address vacancies on the board and will be conducting “a thorough search for qualified candidates.”

* Tina Sfondeles asked the governor about why the chairman resigned and if the board should be non partisan at an unrelated news conference today…

First of all, the death of an 11-year-old boy is unbelievably tragic under any circumstances, and these especially.

I think that the members of the PRB as you know are of both parties, they’re nominated and approved by the Senate.

As you know, the leader of the panel that made the decision to let the prisoner [Crosetti Brand] out, has resigned. I think that was probably a proper decision on her part and I think that the chairman of the PRB, who served admirably for 11 years, also Republican, chose to leave [they] did not express any reason in particular.

I think that the changes that are necessary here are evident in the fact that the panel didn’t take into consideration enough the domestic violence history of this particular prisoner. And the fact that there were reports by the victim of that person knocking on her door, being around her apartment building, etc.

And so, one thing that we’ve decided to do is to make sure that we enhance the domestic violence training that all PRB members get, including all the ones that are there now and of course, any new ones that are proposed to make sure that this never happens again.

* Pritzker was also asked when the PRB members would be replaced…

Well, the more that people politicize the position, the less likely it is that someone would want to serve in it. And as you know, there have been people in the General Assembly typically the opposite party who have politicized this. So it makes it more difficult, I mean, this has been a very short period of time. I think we’re talking about five work days so far, since the resignations, the two.

And so obviously, we’re contemplating that we need to make nominations to those positions, but we don’t have any decisions yet.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Apr 1, 24 @ 10:42 am

Comments

One of the more curious aspects of this story is that Brand admitted to being at the victim’s apartment building during the initial confrontation — though he denied trying to force entry into the victim’s unit. But when a review of the PRB’s electronic monitoring tracking system failed to show GPS evidence confirming he was there, Brand changed his story and claimed he never went to the apartment building. That seemed to be the main reason for the board to release him a second time — with tragic results.

Does that GPS technology work properly?

Comment by Tom S. Monday, Apr 1, 24 @ 2:20 pm