 Senate approves bill protecting prison, DHS employees
Protecting correctional officers working at prisons and state
employees working at secured facilities housing sexually violent
individuals is the aim of legislation I am sponsoring.
Senate Bill 2365 increases felony penalties for inmates or
sexually violent individuals who throw blood or other bodily matter
at facility employees.
This legislation was requested by the Fraternal Order of Police
Illinois Department of Corrections Lodge 263. Correctional officers
and employees in secured facilities that house sexually violent
people face dangerous and difficult people on a daily basis. This
legislation increases penalties for offenders who try to humiliate
or hurt an officer or an employee by throwing bodily waste at them.
Under current law, a prison inmate or a sexually dangerous person
committed to a Department of Human Services facility who tries to
throw bodily matter at an employee is charged with an aggravated
battery. The penalty is currently a Class 3 felony (two to five
years in prison; fine up to $25,000). Senate 2365 raises the penalty
to a Class 2 felony (three to seven years in prison; fine up to
$25,000).
Passed by a 54-0 vote of the Senate on April 1, Senate Bill 2365
has moved to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Kudos
An April 8 news article in the Peoria Journal Star told of
several local law enforcement officials and concerned citizens who
were honored April 7 at the annual Illinois State Police awards
ceremony.
These individuals had worked together to try to turn around a
terrible string of accidents that killed 15 teenagers in Tazewell
County between March 2005 and July 2006. The goal was to get through
the 2006-07 school year without any teen crash deaths in Tazewell
County.
And they did it!
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Congratulations to those who received awards for their work with the
Tazewell County Teen Initiative: Illinois State Police Capt. Dean
Kennedy, who is based in District 8 in Metamora; Tazewell County
Sheriff Robert Huston; Drew Scott, president of the Tazewell County
Youth Board; Tazewell County Coroner Dennis Conover; Sara Sparkman
of the Tazewell County Health Department; John Anderson, Tazewell
County highway engineer; Michael Stout of the Illinois Department of
Transportation; and James Graham of the Ford Motor Company Fund.
Toy recalls: ensuring the safety of your children
Recalls of children's products are issued for a variety of
reasons, ranging from small parts that can detach and pose a choking
hazard, to toys that are coated in lead-based paint.
During 2007, nearly 150 different toys -- amounting to more than
38 million units -- were recalled. In addition, more than 30
juvenile products were recalled, including items such as cribs and
car seats, and numerous clothing products.
These massive recalls were enough to scare any parent. Because
children are particularly vulnerable to dangerous consumer products,
people purchasing items for kids are right to be concerned about
safety.
If you would like to know more, sign up at
www.recalls.gov for e-mail
notification of all recalled products. You can also check at
www.cpsc.gov for the Consumer
Product Safety Commission's information on recalled children's
products. Or call the Illinois attorney general's product recall
line at 1-888-414-7678 or TTY 1-800-964-3013 if you have questions
or if you see a recalled product being sold in stores.
[Text from file received from
Sen.
Bill Brady, 44th District] |
