I TOLD YOU SO!

On September 20th of last year, I posted a blog, “Quinn Says Let The Prisoners Go.” I pointed out that fiscally the early release plan was not really worth it and I wrote, “Illinois Governor Quinn has announced a plan (well not the details, just that he wants to do it) to provide early release of 1,000 inmates from prisons that he says will save the state about $5 million. But since it will cost the prison system about $2 million to monitor those who get out; the math shows a $3 million not $5 million yearly savings. Since the population of the State of Illinois is about 13 million people, that means that the resultant tax benefit is about TWENTY FIVE cents per citizen.” Did anybody listen to me? No! When the program was announced, an Illinois Department of Corrections 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. The offenders who will qualify for the program will just be “drug and property crime offenders,” Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said. Inmates who are really “bad” like murders, sex offenders and domestic violence criminals won’t qualify for early release. I guess no one listened to her either! Now it is 11 months later and guess what? I was right that the program was not smart and the Illinois Department of Corrections was wrong saying that no violent prisoners would be released.

Last December Governor Quinn asked retired Appellate Judge David A. Erickson to head a committee to investigate the early release program. The report is scathing. "The Meritorious Good Time Push program was ill-conceived. The Department (of Corrections) exhibited institutional myopia: While pursuing cost-saving measures, it neglected the most important consideration — the potential impact on public safety."

According to the Chicago Tribune, here is a breakdown of how the 1,727 early release prisoners have fared: --658 parolees are free and compliant; --498 have been discharged; --390 have been returned to Illinois prisons, some for committing violent offenses; --100 are the subjects of federal immigration enforcement; --36 are incarcerated elsewhere; --32 have outstanding warrants but haven't yet been arrested; --13 have died (we don’t know if by natural causes or by violence) So 25% are back in prison and almost 10% are subject to an investigation or have not been arrested yet; so we basically have a 35% “error rate” on who got out early under “meritorious good time.” I have no idea how much it costs to investigate, re-arrest and send the 426 felons back to prison; but if it costs $2,000 per prisoner (and it probably costs more when you add up salaries of policemen, judges, public defenders etc.), there’s a million dollars of the supposed savings from the program down the drain! And what about the trauma to the victims? And payments to them from the Crime Victim Compensation program? It has to add up to much more than my million dollar estimate! By the way, synonyms for meritorious are praiseworthy and commendable; not words usually associated with felons. Governor Quinn’s Chief of Staff Jerry Stermet said, “The accelerated MGT program was a mistake." I said that 11 months ago, not even factoring in that violent offenders might be released. While Quinn has placed most of the blame on Corrections chief Michael Randle, he also said, “Clearly mistakes were made. I've said that before. I take accountability for the mistakes. The director who made the mistakes takes responsibility for them. My job is to find remedies for those mistakes." Winston Churchill said, “All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.” Since Quinn is not a wise man, we have to hope the voters of Illinois are and don't allow him to keep Illinois' highest elected position, the Office of Governor