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Quinn suspended the program Sunday after seeing the AP
report. Records obtained and analyzed by the AP show that since
September more than 850 inmates have been released weeks earlier
than they ordinarily would be. The Corrections Department is saving
money by abandoning a policy that requires inmates to serve at least
61 days and by awarding them discretionary good-conduct credit
immediately upon entering prison.
That means some prisoners have enough good-conduct days to
qualify for release almost immediately -- before they've had a
chance to demonstrate any conduct at all, good or bad. The inmates
are kept at the department's prison processing centers and released
after as few as 11 days.
So Jorge Bogas spent just 18 days behind bars for aggravated
driving under the influence after he hit two cars while driving the
wrong direction on Interstate 57, hospitalizing one motorist for
weeks. Bogas sat five days in Cook County Jail, was transferred to
the processing center at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet
and released 13 days later.
James Walker-Bey, sentenced to a year for violating probation for
carrying a .25-caliber pistol in Alsip, was confined for just over
two weeks -- three days in Cook County and 14 at Stateville prison.
And Antoine Garrett, previously convicted of armed robbery and
illegal firearms possession by a felon, got a one-year sentence
after Chicago police saw him drop a bag of cocaine on the street as
they approached, but he spent just 21 days locked up.
"That's outrageous," said DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph
Birkett, whose office has convicted 22 people who have been released
early since September. "Good-conduct credits are intended to be
awarded to those people who demonstrate through their behavior that
they merit those credits."
On Sunday, Quinn ordered an exam by his chief of staff and
Department of Corrections Director Michael Randle.
"The public's safety always comes first," Quinn said in a
statement. "A top-to-bottom review of this program will make sure
that we never waver from this all-important goal."
Quinn spokesman Bob Reed declined to discuss what Randle and
chief of staff Jerome Stermer will review, other than "issues raised
in The Associated Press story."
The practice is called "MGT Push," for "meritorious good time,"
according to a memo obtained by the AP.
It's separate from a plan Quinn announced in September to release
1,000 prisoners up to a year early to save money amid a budget
crisis. Only 117 had been sent home by last week under that program,
Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said.
When he announced that release program, Quinn said he was being
tougher than the state's early release law required by barring more
types of violent criminals from eligibility.
"MGT Push" has included more than 100 people convicted of
potentially violent crimes, including aggravated and domestic
battery, battering and assaulting police officers, aggravated
robbery, and reckless firearms discharge, the AP's analysis shows.
That's not counting the prisoners serving time for nonviolent
offenses who committed more serious crimes in the past, including
murder.
Nine people were released Dec. 3, the same day Quinn signed a law
requiring prison time for gang members caught with guns.
The day before, Corrections sent home 20 others, including a man
convicted of domestic battery who was confined for 19 days and a man
who had spent a total of 20 days locked up for carrying a concealed
weapon, records show.
Smith called it "more efficient" to release the inmates after a
few weeks at Stateville instead of paying to send them to another
prison just for a couple of months. Inmates must complete short
classes before departing.
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Prosecutors understand the budget crisis but oppose early release.
A spokeswoman for Anita Alvarez, state's attorney for Cook
County, which accounts for three-quarters of the inmates who are
part of the analysis, said it "could threaten public safety or
increase crime."
"When an individual who was supposedly sent to prison shows up
less than a month later, what are the people in the community
saying, what is the victim thinking?" asked Winnebago County's top
prosecutor, Joseph Bruscato.
How it would work
Here's how someone sentenced to a year in prison could be
released after just a week or two:
-
The law
automatically waives half his sentence, cutting time in prison
to just six months.
-
The Corrections
director may also grant six months of good-conduct time (based
on conduct in prison, not county jail) for all but the most
serious offenses. Theoretically, that could reduce time in
prison to zero. Corrections maintains that historically, nearly
all inmates eligible for good time get the full amount.
-
In the past, the department had a
policy -- unwritten, according to Sandy Funk of the agency's
transfer coordinator's office -- of requiring inmates to serve
at least 61 days before collecting any of that good-time credit.
With that requirement gone, prisoners can be released after
processing.
The new policy might save money, but critics say it also removes
the deterrent of a stint in state prison and undermines judges and
juries.
"For the politicians to come in and say, ‘We can't afford this,
so you can go home early,' why do we have a judicial system?" asked
Sherman Police Chief Eric Smith, president of the Illinois
Association of Chiefs of Police, which opposes the policy.
Corrections said 943 inmates were affected by the change in
October and November, but exact figures weren't available for
September. Later, it said 541 inmates were released in September and
October, but official November numbers weren't yet available.
The AP obtained information on approximately 850 already released
or scheduled to be by Sunday.
Their average state prison stay was 16 days. Combined with time
the inmates spent in county jail prior to that, they averaged 106
days behind bars -- 47 percent of the sentence the court decreed
they should serve.
Charles Fasano, prison monitor for the John Howard Association,
said tough-on-crime policies of the past three decades are haunting
the state. He supports the early release but challenged lawmakers to
confront prison overcrowding caused by long sentences for minor
crimes, such as drug possession.
"We want to get everyone off the streets, but we don't have the
money," he said. "You can't have it both ways."
[Associated Press;
By JOHN O'CONNOR]
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. |
