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Quinn continues early release of felons after saying he shut the program down!

Molly B.

By Molly B.
in Illinois Politics

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Molly B. Member

Molly B.

Posted
Posted

In an email from Sen. Christine Radogno

 

Think Early Release was Stopped? Think Again.

 

Open jail doorGovernor Pat Quinn is granting early release to convicted felons on a near daily basis, even as he buys ads and makes public statements designed to portray himself as having shut down discretionary early release programs in Illinois.

 

In fact, more than 2,000 felons have been released in the past three months, even though Quinn recently released a television ad that references early release and says he "took action and shut it down" and adds he "stopped it cold."

 

Quinn's claims prompted State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) to join with other legal experts and law enforcement officials to draw attention to the ongoing release of felons, including at least three convicted of murder released this month.

 

"Since late July, Governor Quinn has allowed these convicted felons to leave prison early under the controversial MGT or Meritorious Good Time program," said State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Naperville). "In fact, on the very same day that he began running a commercial claiming to have shut the program down 'cold' he released 22 felons."

 

Quinn's actions run "absolutely counter" both to the recommendations of his own early release panel and to claims both he and his staff have made, Dillard said.

 

Dillard was joined at an Oct. 17 press conference in Chicago by former prosecutor and current State Rep. Dennis Reboletti (R-Elmhurst), DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett and Jim Simmons of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, to draw attention to Quinn's continued use of the discretionary MGT program.

 

"Unbelievable as it may seem, Governor Quinn and his press spokesperson have been claiming he is not using discretionary early release when his own Department of Corrections, because of a law that Senator Dillard and I co-sponsored, is forced to post new names every day of people being released under the MGT program," Reboletti said.

 

"As a prosecutor, I am particularly concerned for crime victims," Birkett said. "They may not realize that thousands of felons, many convicted of very serious crimes, are being released early. And, they may also be unaware that these early releases are occurring under a program that the Governor's own Early Release commission concluded was discretionary."

 

“The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest law enforcement organization in Illinois, can not sit by and allow this type of activity to continue where the people of Illinois are put at risk,” Simmons said.

 

In fact, as of Oct. 15, three hundred felons have been released so far this month due to the discretionary good time awards. These include dangerous offenders, such as aggravated sexual abuse, aggravated battery of a pregnant person, aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member, numerous firearm offenses and at least three individuals convicted on murder charges.

 

Dillard explained that under SB 3411, which was signed by the Governor on July 19, the Department of Corrections is required to post online the names and criminal history of every prisoner granted meritorious good time. The list can be viewed under the "Community Notification of Inmate Early Release" on the Illinois Department of Corrections website.

 

However, because the law only went into effect in July, Reboletti pointed out that the true number of felons released by Quinn since he supposedly suspended the program could be thousands more.

 

"We simply do not know how many prisoners received discretionary good time from December, when the Governor claimed he halted the program, until July 19," Reboletti said. "If we assume the pace was about the same during those months, the number released would exceed 6,000."

 

"It's really pretty frightening to think about," Birkett said. "When you realize that Illinois had about 50,000 people in prison and the Governor is apparently awarding this discretionary good time to anyone who was in prison last December and who is not legally banned from the program, we could see thousands more felons released under a program he said he halted."

 

Although the website list claims that it only contains the names of persons granted early release prior to suspending the program in January Dillard took issue with that claim.

 

"This is a discretionary program and as both the Governor's own MGT investigatory panel and our own legal review have concluded, the state is under no obligation to continue to release prisoners early simply because they happened to be in prison last December," Dillard said.

 

Reboletti and Dillard said they decided to look into the issue after they filed a package of early release reforms.

 

"At the time, the Governor dismissed our recommendations, telling the media that he was not interested in reforming discretionary early release because he had suspended it and did not intend to resume. The Governor's spokesperson also told the Associated Press that the Department of Corrections had changed its policies toward early release based on Judge Erickson's MGT Report findings," Dillard said.

 

That prompted a review of Corrections Department disclosures, which revealed that prisoners are being released almost daily under the discretionary early release program known as MGT or Meritorious Good Time.

 

"The Governor cannot possibly claim he has implemented the recommendations of Judge Erickson's Report when the most important recommendation of the report was that the state should use Meritorious Good Time for its intended purpose and not just grant six months of good time for stepping foot inside a corrections facility,” Birkett said. "Pat Quinn can't have it both ways. He can't claim he shut discretionary early release down cold and still release thousands of felons."

ilphil Member

ilphil

Posted
Posted

Quinn lied???!!!

Oh no, what a suprise!!

 

I am totally shocked.

Our illustrious governor a liar...Oh the humanity. :frantics:

 

Kind of makes you wonder what else he has lied about.

Buzzard Member

Buzzard

Posted
Posted

Quinn had to open the prison gates and release thousands of felons to ease the strain on Illinois prison system. And the reason for doing so was to make it possible to sell Thomson Prison so Obama could make good on his promise to close Guantanamo Bay Detention center in Cuba.

 

This whole miscarriage of justice has a Democrat stench all over it. Quinn, Durbin, Obama....they're all in on it.

abolt243 Member

abolt243

Posted
Posted

Oops--I just noticed that my link to Sen. Dillard's press release contains mostly the same material as Molly posted, with a bit more information thrown in.

 

 

Has anyone seen this in the mainstream media? I've told Rich Miller @ CapFax about it twice, texted it to Don and Roma this morning. Miller hasn't even acknowledged by emails like he usually does.

 

Isn't this a pretty big deal?? Quinn's ads have been saying for months that he "stopped the program COLD". When in fact, he's released 2000 felons in just the last three months!

 

Is Brady's campaign holding this for the last week before the election??

 

AB

gravyboy77 Member

gravyboy77

Posted
Posted

Oops--I just noticed that my link to Sen. Dillard's press release contains mostly the same material as Molly posted, with a bit more information thrown in.

 

 

Has anyone seen this in the mainstream media? I've told Rich Miller @ CapFax about it twice, texted it to Don and Roma this morning. Miller hasn't even acknowledged by emails like he usually does.

 

Isn't this a pretty big deal?? Quinn's ads have been saying for months that he "stopped the program COLD". When in fact, he's released 2000 felons in just the last three months!

 

Is Brady's campaign holding this for the last week before the election??

 

AB

 

The media has been beating the "Brady wants to kill your dog & cat" mass euthinization allegation that Quinn is pushing (like that has anything to do with our state in dire straits fiscally). I was driving the last 3 days and was swithching between wind and wls and yesterday thats all they were talking about locally.headbang1.gif

Xwing Member

Xwing

Posted
Posted

This whole miscarriage of justice has a Democrat stench all over it. Quinn, Durbin, Obama....they're all in on it.

 

 

Yes. They're all in this mess together. But, as usual, the "mainstream" media hasn't bothered mentioning it.

 

It worries is greatly that the so-called-news that most people listen to is nothing but a Democrat mouthpiece. This should be front-page news accross the state.

Yas Member

Yas

Posted
Posted

Ahh Question......

 

http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/search/inms.asp?idoc=R58210

 

 

ADMISSION / RELEASE / DISCHARGE INFO

Admission Date: 10/16/2009

Parole Date: 07/21/2010

Projected Discharge Date: 07/21/2012

 

 

 

Perhaps I'm reading this wrong but I see:

 

SENTENCING INFORMATION

MITTIMUS: 08CR1507102

CLASS: 2

COUNT: 1

OFFENSE: FELON POSS/USE FIREARM PRIOR

CUSTODY DATE: 07/21/2008

SENTENCE: 5 Years 0 Months 0 Days

COUNTY: COOK

SENTENCE DISCHARGED?: NO

 

MITTIMUS: 05CR1220901

CLASS: X

COUNT: 1

OFFENSE: AGG VEH HIJACKING/WEAPON

CUSTODY DATE: 04/30/2005

SENTENCE: 6 Years 0 Months 0 Days

COUNTY: COOK

SENTENCE DISCHARGED?: YES

 

 

Is my math a bit wrong? But shouldn't 5 and 6 = 11? And the admission date is 10/16/09 with a release of 7/21/2010 that's less than 1 year.

 

Or is this a glowing example of Let's make a deal yet again?

Federal Farmer Member

Federal Farmer

Posted
Posted

I wish the Illinois Department of Corrections website made the page with the early release data easier to work with. If it were sortable by date, it would be easy to set up a "Quinn Early Felon Release Watch" page, updated every day. As it is, though, that would be a major pain in the backside.

 

How do you envision the page working?

45superman Member

45superman

Posted
Posted

How do you envision the page working?

 

I don't know--hadn't really gotten very far in my thinking. Maybe just a little blog. It's all kinda idle talk, though, since IDOC doesn't make the list sortable by date. Probably not all that great an idea, anyway.

 

Yas, I'm not sure how that works. Could be he was being allowed to serve both sentences concurrently, rather than consecutively.

Federal Farmer Member

Federal Farmer

Posted
Posted

How do you envision the page working?

 

I don't know--hadn't really gotten very far in my thinking. Maybe just a little blog. It's all kinda idle talk, though, since IDOC doesn't make the list sortable by date. Probably not all that great an idea, anyway.

 

Yas, I'm not sure how that works. Could be he was being allowed to serve both sentences concurrently, rather than consecutively.

 

It wouldn't be too difficult to scrape the page and reformat sorted by date.

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