Prison Release

VIRGINIA C.U.R.E. NEWS 4U



chicagotribune.com
1,000 prisoners to go free as state looks to save money Move will release non-violent inmates By Monique Garcia Tribune reporter September 20, 2009


Gov. Pat Quinn is planning to release 1,000 inmates from prisons across Illinois in the next several months in an effort to save money.

An Illinois Department of Corrections prisons spokeswoman said that only "low-level, non-violent" offenders who are in the last year of their sentence will qualify for early release and will be fitted with electronic monitoring devices.

Officials with the corrections agency and the Quinn administration declined to provide specifics, however.

Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said the bulk of those to be released and placed on supervised parole will be drug and property crime offenders. Smith said inmates who have been convicted of murder, sex crimes, domestic violence or who have active orders of protection against them do not qualify for release.

Releasing prisoners is estimated to save about $5 million a year, Smith said, though Quinn also is giving the prison agency an extra $2 million to monitor those who are let out. Each will be assigned a parole officer and provided drug treatment and other rehabilitative programs.

The early release is another symptom of the state's dire financial situation and is coupled with Quinn's plan to lay off about 1,000 prison workers.

Quinn also gave the department an extra $2 million to help divert offenders from state prisons. That money will go toward drug treatment and other community-based alternatives to reduce the number of people who receive short prison sentences. Prison officials say 47 percent of offenders released from custody each year serve six months or less.

In a statement, Quinn said the changes are focused on "protecting the public while also modernizing and improving the state's correctional system."

Quinn waited to announce the decision until late Friday afternoon and buried it near the bottom of a news release. His Democratic primary opponent, Comptroller Dan Hynes, seized on that.

"He's trying to sneak one through as people across Illinois take off for the weekend," Hynes campaign spokesman Matt McGrath said. "He can't hide the fact that he has no plan and no vision to lead our state forward."

Prison reform advocates said releasing non-violent offenders close to the end of their sentences will free up resources to allow prison officials to focus on rehabilitative programming for those with longer sentences, and in turn reduce the rate of inmates who often return to jail.

"We should be using tax dollars wisely to be locking people up who present a physical threat to the community," said Hanke Gratteau, executive director of the John Howard Association and a former Tribune managing editor. "But to just lock people up to punish them without programming doesn't make any sense."

The money comes out of a $1.2 billion discretionary fund lawmakers gave Quinn to use as he sees fit to boost funding for state agencies.


--JEAN