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LDC
citations are ‘suspect,’
AFSCME spokesman says
[JUNE 10, 2002]
The timing of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s
citation of Lincoln Developmental Center for safety violations is
"suspect," according to Roberta Lynch, deputy director of American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. AFSCME
represents the workers at LDC.
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"I think it is rather
suspect that these incidents, which were all relatively minor and
would not normally have risen to the level of calling in the
Department of Public Health, suddenly elevated to a crisis just days
before the General Assembly was called back into session," Lynch
told the Lincoln Daily News.
Gov. George Ryan last
winter cut the budget for LDC from last year’s $35 million to about
$11 as part of a plan to downsize the facility from its former 370
residents to 100. At the last minute, state legislators restored the
LDC funding in the budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins
July 1.
Ryan has called the
General Assembly back into a special session today to review cuts he
is planning to make to the recently approved budget, which he says
is about $700 million greater than the state will receive in revenue
next year.
AFSCME officials are
concerned that the governor intends to veto the higher
appropriation.
"The General Assembly
is going to consider amendatory vetoes in this special session, but
the governor has called them into session without giving them any
advanced notice of what his vetoes are going to be," Lynch said.
Lynch said the
Department of Human Services called the Department of Public Health
asking them to investigate the incidents.
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this article]
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"The Department of
Human Services [which oversees LDC] and the Department of Public
Health have hastened to put LDC back into immediate jeopardy just
before this special session. That is a sign that the governor and
DHS want to discourage legislators from retaining this increased
level of funding," she said.
If the governor does
veto the additional LDC funding, the General Assembly has the option
of overriding the veto.
Last week DHS was
notified that LDC had been cited for three different incidents in
which residents had been left unsupervised long enough to be a
threat to their health and safety, Lynch said. [See June 8 article:
"Department
of Public Health cites LDC"]
The battle to
downsize LDC has been ongoing since early last fall, when LDC was
first cited for incidents which jeopardized the health and safety of
its residents. Since that time, Gov. Ryan has reduced the population
from about 375 residents to its current level of 248 and also
announced plans to cut the number of employees.
A ruling handed down
by Logan County Associate Judge Don Behle late in March stopped the
governor and DHS from moving any more residents from the facility,
and the proposed layoff of about 370 employees was also halted.
The state has appealed Judge Behle’s
injunction, but no date has yet been set for a hearing before the
Appellate Court.
[Joan
Crabb]
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Circuit
clerk improves
service with technology
[JUNE 10, 2002]
Carla
Bender, Logan County Circuit Court clerk, has announced the county’s
participation in several technological improvements that will allow
electronic access of court information and case data. As chairman of
the county’s technology committee, Bender, in collaboration with the
locally owned Integrity Data systems, implemented a county website,
which is now operational at
www.co.logan.il.us. The site includes information about the
various county offices and departments. It is currently still under
construction and will grow as more pages are added.
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The Circuit Court
clerk’s page on the site allows the user to click into a centralized
Internet database that allows inquiries on both criminal and civil
cases. The user can search by case name or number, select a case,
and then view such case information as charges, criminal
dispositions/sentences, civil judgments, account/payment history
(with the exception of child support payment history) and the
history of case proceedings. This, of course, will allow court
system information to be accessed immediately from offsite locations
without the necessity to call or go to the Circuit Court clerk’s
office.
"We are always
seeking ways to improve communication and expand access to public
records, and I believe this will be a very productive use of
technology to do so," Circuit Clerk Carla Bender said. "By choosing
an approach which shares a single offsite web server among all of
the participating courts, we have significantly reduced the county’s
initial cost to make the data available and eliminated security
threats to county networks," Bender stated.
Another important
project that Bender has been working on, in cooperation with
Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, is the statewide victim
notification system. Through the program, crime victims will be
notified by phone when their attacker is released from an Illinois
prison or jail. The system will automatically send a recorded
message to registered victims when their assailants are released
from sheriff’s or Illinois Department of Corrections’ custody.
Victims, who are registered by phone and whose identities are kept
secret, then confirm that they received the message, using an ID
number.
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this article]
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The Illinois attorney
general’s office has begun tracking the nearly 40,000 prison inmates
and approximately 40,000 parolees statewide. Nearly 90 counties,
including Logan, have signed on to participate in the program. The
target date for all counties to participate is Oct. 1. The
registration and notification line is 1 (866) 5-NOTIFY.
"Victims have a right
to know when their assailant is released from custody, and I am
anxious to contribute to an effort to protect victims from further
emotional and physical harm," Bender stated. "If a victim is certain
that the justice system will provide notification of the offender’s
release, that person can feel more safe and secure that the offender
will not be released without their knowledge and have the
opportunity to victimize them again.
"I believe that
government should do everything possible to see that victims are
protected and that they have all the information about their case as
soon as possible. This program initiated by Jim Ryan will ensure
victims access to the system, and they will not be put at risk for
further harm," Bender said.
The complete implementation and training
schedule for the automated victim-notification system across the
state is currently being determined. The information from the
circuit clerk’s database will be electronically transmitted to the
system through use of an automated connection, thereby getting case
event information in real time to the system for notification to
victims to ensure their safety.
[News release]
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