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 Gov. Pat Quinn shut down the 30-year-old early-release program after The Associated Press reported in 2009 that
prison officials had implemented an unpublicized, accelerated
version that was springing criminals in as little as eight days.
He has shown no interest in reviving it, but at
least one legislator is looking at it again as the prison population
has grown by 3,000 inmates in two years. Meanwhile, a group of
lawmakers is meeting with Quinn to find solutions more palatable to
the governor and the public.
Conditions inside state prisons are "wretched,"
according to John Maki, executive director of the prison watchdog
group John Howard Association. Monitoring visits to Illinois lockups
in the past year have revealed inmates housed in gymnasiums,
standing water in living quarters and rodent problems.
Illinois is not alone in trying to address
prison crowding. An August report by the American Civil Liberties
Union identified six states that have adopted laws in the past five
years to decrease prison populations, with four more working on the
issues. One of the more popular tacks among reform states is to
expand good-conduct credit, including in Kentucky and Ohio just last
year.
Prison advocates nationwide generally support
early release as one solution to overcrowding, and Rep. Art Turner, D-Chicago, has introduced legislation that would restore Illinois'
accelerated early-release program. But the governor previously has
said he won't go along with that, even with new controls imposed by
lawmakers, after problems with the program nearly cost him
re-election in 2010.
Instead, Quinn's staff has been working with a
group of legislators who plan to pick up the pace when the General
Assembly resumes its work later this month. Some told the AP they
hope to have a solution by the end of the spring session.
The group includes Rep. Dennis Reboletti, a
law-and-order legislator who speaks of being "smart on crime" and
advocates alternative sentencing, such as treatment for first- or
second-time substance abusers.
"Put them into community-based programs with
ankle bracelets, into treatment centers or halfway houses where they
can get job counseling or programming to put them back into a
productive life," the Elmhurst Republican said.
As of November, there were 48,620 people
incarcerated in Illinois, 144 percent more than the 33,700 for which
space was designed, according to the Corrections Department. But
department officials now play down those numbers, saying
"operational capacity" is about 51,200. That's after the agency
began counting how many people a facility can actually hold, along
with what it was designed to house.
For decades in Illinois, the director of the
Corrections Department had the discretion to cut sentences with
"meritorious good time," or MGT, by up to six months for an inmate
who displayed good behavior behind bars.
But Quinn abandoned the practice in December
2009 after the AP reported that the agency secretly dropped an
informal requirement that all incoming inmates serve 60 days behind
bars before getting good-time credit in a plan dubbed "MGT Push."
More than 1,700 inmates were released under that program, and some
went on to commit more crimes.
Derrick King, for example, was sentenced to
three years in prison for a brutal attack on a woman in 2008. He
served about a year in county jail and 14 days in state prison
before he was released in October 2009 under MGT Push and then
arrested the next day on suspicion of assault and sent back to
prison.
Lawmakers later put the 60-day minimum sentence
requirement into law. An independent review of the accelerated
early-release program determined the Quinn administration had failed
to consider dangers to public safety in trying to save money. The
review
recommended the program be reinstated with reforms.
Quinn has not said why his administration will
not reinstate the program, although he said in October 2010 he was
focusing on "alternative sentencing approaches." Spokeswoman Brooke
Anderson confirmed he's working with the legislative group to
"manage population numbers while continuing to incarcerate -- for
safety, rehabilitation, and punishment."
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Along with Reboletti, the panel meeting with
Quinn's staff about a solution includes Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale, and Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin. Each said he's open
to options that keep the public safe but reduce the inmate
population to make prisons safer and spare the state budget. The
House Democrats' representative is parliamentarian David Ellis, the
governor's office said.
Dillard, a candidate for governor in 2010 and
potentially again in 2014, said early release is not popular, given
the shock of MGT Push.
"My constituents want people locked up," he
said. "They're tired of people who still should be locked up in the
penitentiary (out) committing crimes."
Nonetheless, he's open to ideas such as Reboletti's.
Turner's bill would reverse the new 60-day
minimum prison sentence requirement and give the Corrections
director discretion to release anyone who has served 60 days behind
any bars, including in county jails. Turner did not return repeated
calls and an email seeking comment.
Regardless of the method, something has to
happen soon, Maki said.
At the Vandalia prison in June, John Howard visitors
found dirty, stagnant water pooling on the floor of inmates' living
areas. At the Vienna prison in September, one dormitory, Building 19, had
rodent droppings, and inmates complained of mice and cockroaches.
Windows on two floors were broken and birds had built nests inside.
"When you put nonviolent offenders in deplorable
conditions, you're not going to make this person better," said Maki,
whose report blames Quinn and lawmakers who have cut Corrections
budgets. "Prisons are not typically uplifting places, but Building
19 was one of the most depressing things I've ever seen."
[Associated Press,
JOHN O'CONNOR]
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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