Archive for the ‘IDOC’ Category

No Action On IDOC Meritorious Good Time, (MGT) Expected in 2011!

Posted by parchangelo on September 12, 2011

Forget about the IL Fall Veto Session beginning October 25, 2011. The veto session is going to be consumed by budget issues. No decisions made will resolve the horrible prison over-crowding in Illinois. If Meritorious Good Time (MGT) is even mentioned by legislators, it will not be in the context of them having the power to resurrect it.

Governor Pat Quinn is the person with the ability to act to reduce the present prison population in some manner; and he has chosen not to act until possibly 2012. Sharon Ellman, a spokesperson for the IL Department of Corrections has stated multiple times that there is presently no plan for MGT to return. Well, we are getting the idea that she is correct.

Governor Pat Quinn has had plenty on his plate this year with the budget occupying his attention. He apparently does not regard the denial of MGT or any supplemental credit for inmates (even minor offenders) to be a hardship on inmates or MGT something they are deserving of. So, he is not now considering any action to reduce the prison population. Truth is, with his proposed cuts and closures, he may feel there is room to squeeze in more bodies into some state facilities.

The only action on the IL Department of Corrections agenda is the combination of all their 49 or so separate computer and data sources into one database in conjunction with the Microsoft Offender 360 software program it is adapting. This process of computer changeover has been going on for awhile now, and lots of inmates report that facility computers are mostly crashing down for extended periods of time because of problems in the changeover. Since the computers are relied upon by CO’s for just about everything, inmates are going weeks and some times multiple months without access to commissary, and movement and supply restrictions are being arbitrarily applied when the computers cannot be accessed.

The database integration to Offender 360 is not scheduled to be completed until sometime in 2012. Who knows when, since it is likely to be delayed as more problems will arise.

Don’t expect Quinn to plan or authorize any meaningful early release of inmates until the computer switchover is completed. Quinn’s indifference to the prison over-crowding issues won’t end until he is either sure all Corrections procedures and technology is in place to handle releasing anyone without mistakes being made, or else he is publicly pressured to act.

Quinn has put himself out there to battle with the legislature to get more money for this year’s budget. We encourage readers to contact legislators and give them your perspective as to why he should be criticized and held accountable for numerous mistakes including inaction on prison overcrowding issues.

The next step on the state improvement agenda, after fixing Offender 360, is devising a new audit and accounting system to implement across the board for all state agencies (which now each maintain their own antiquated and costly systems). We certainly don’t want to wait for that computer change…

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins | Tagged: IDOC, IL Governor Pat Quinn, Illinois Department of corrections, Is Good time reinstated, Meritorious Good Time, MGT, Microsoft Offender 360 | 1 Comment »

Quinn’s proposed Cuts & Closures Backfiring So Far…

Posted by mikethemouth on September 12, 2011

Nobody is taking Governor Pat Quinn’s threats to lay-off state employees en masse and close down seven state facilities because of a budget crunch seriously so far. As we said, it is doubtful that Quinn is going to be successful in carrying out lay-offs and closures, because he has too many hurtles to cross. What Quinn’s tactic is managing to do is generate a lot of negative publicity for Quinn’s overall competence. Kurt Erickson’s article below summarizes why everyone is dissing Quinn for threatening large-scale lay-offs and facility closures when Quinn chooses to ignore other possible alternative revenue sources available to the state to raise the equivalent, if not more, money: (Click on article titles)

Erickson: Quinn’s announcement viewed as bluff

Illinois takes in more cash from taxpayers, less from feds

Below is AFSCME’s factsheet on the proposed Quinn lay-offs and facility closures. Aside from the drastic effects on social service agencies for the disabled, AFSCME points out that Quinn is proposing to close Chester, the only mental health facility serving the mentally ill inmates of the state prison population and the IL Youth Center, the state’s only juvenile boot camp. This only goes to show readers how unrealistic the proposed closures are and to indicate the degree of opposition Quinn would face if he actually pushes to make these closures.

View this document on Scribd

What this directly shows that this is all a political ploy by the Governor to pressure the state legislature into approving a supplemental budget appropriation for the year, is that fact that the proposed actions are designed to inflict maximum pain at the cost of relatively minimum gain: since the state would only save less than $55 million this fiscal year, or a staggering 0.2 percent of the entire state budget. Since Quinn’s budget showfall is a $2.2 billion dollar gap, $55 million will hardly cover it. Quinn would still have to depend on state legislators or other means to cover the rest, and antagonizing them now is a poor strategy. As some are pointing out, it will take money to save money: (Click on article title)

Closing mental facilities to cost millions

As to the number of state employees, remember that IL ranks just about last (if not last) in the country as to the ratio of approx 97 state employees to every 10,000 inhabitants. US states average 143 workers per 10,000 residents. IL has been number 49 on the list for several years since cutting state employees became the priority under Blagovich.

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins | Tagged: Chester, closing state facilities, IL Governor Pat Quinn, laying off state workers, Logan Correctional, Quinn, Quinn's proposed closures | Leave a Comment »

September 2011 & Trouble comes to River City

Posted by lactoselazy on September 7, 2011

First of all, readers are advised not to panic!

Websites are awash with concerned readers. There is some heavy politiking going on at the state level in Springfield right now with the Governor making threats and noises about cutting state employees and facilities. It is just NOISE and Pat Quinn positioning himself. What will come out of all this postering is nothing in the short-term and October, and possibly little that is productive in the long-run.

BUT THIS DOES PRESENT AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THOSE INTERESTED TO HOLD GOVERNOR PAT QUINN TO ACCOUNTABILITY!

Below are some of the scary articles coming out since Governor Pat Quinn started claiming that he is poised on the brink of announcing layoffs across several agencies and closing down several facilities in order to meet the budget:

Quinn plans layoffs, facility closings

Gov. Quinn says job ‘reductions’ needed

One fewer prison, more inmate crowding possible for Illinois

Pontiac and Vandalia prisons are both being tossed around as the correctional facilities most likely to be targeted for closure by Pat Quinn. Quinn may carry through on his threats by announcing layoffs and closure in the coming weeks, but as the above articles indicate and the below articles spell out; Quinn’s ability to carry out his threats is largely hollow because of the significant obstacles he would have to overcome, including a couple of them he created himself.

First of all, Quinn so far, has not gotten his way. The state legislature sent him a budget $2.2 billion short of what he wanted. Quinn was unable to sweet-talk the legislature into borrowing money to cover that short-fall during the last legislative session, and since May, Quinn has not found enough cuts to make in the budget they sent him to cover it. So, Quinn wants to force the legislature into approving a supplemental appropriation for the year during the fall veto session which begins October 25, 2011.

Quinn has the state already being challenged in court for renegment on an agreement he made with the public employees union, AFSCME, by not allowing pay raises as scheduled to state employees. Now, he will supposedly claim that the union has not kept the terms of another agreement with them not to layoff staff and close facilities as an basis to claim that he can can do so. He will be quickly challenged in court on the layoffs and proposed closures, and it is very unlikely that any court will rule in his favor. The legal process to implement any of these will be lengthy and is also complicated by the fact as discussed below, the legislature has made it more difficult now for IL governors to simply close any facility:

Quinn can’t just talk about closings

Quinn must justify facility closings under state law

Whether Quinn will succeed in getting more money from this legislature this fall is an open question. He is unlikely to succeed in closing anything and cutting staff. AFSCME is taking a common-sense, lets all cut through the BS posturing in it’s budget perspective:

…“Our state urgently needs leadership. Rather than disrupt vital services and add to Illinois’ already alarmingly high unemployment rate, the governor should work with the General Assembly to forestall service cuts and layoffs. The necessary funding is available if the legislature takes action when it returns for the veto session. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reports that revenue is coming in this year at higher than projected levels.

“We call on the governor and the legislative leaders to work together for the good of our state. This is not a time for partisanship or finger-pointing. It’s a time to work together to ensure that essential services to maintain public safety and meet human needs can continue to be provided. AFSCME stands ready to be part of that effort.”…

By using such an aggressive and antagonistic approach now to resolve the budget dilemna he has been grappling with all year, Pat Quinn, may be biting himself and fellow democrats in the rear-end. Pat Quinn appears to feel that the decisions he is making and carrying out are “morally” the “right thing to do”, but he is far from invulnerable in his position of moral superiority. Enough time has passed from his election win to reveal that Quinn lacks decisive leadership. Indeed, his procrastination on major issues and actions since then has squandered any voter momentum from the last election and leaves even republicans looking good.

Quinn’s actions make him a target for Republicans and AFSCME and other unions who should now realize that any agreements he makes with them are only politically expedient and will be broken by him when required. Voters, politicians, and interested parties should now be focusing their scutiny on Quinn for unnecessarily creating social and economic havoc on a grand scale. Quinn is poised to try to make public employees and social service agencies pawns to his political agenda as he has done for the past year and a half to prison inmates and their families.

As Quinn’s campaign unrolls, this is an opportunity for those concerned (and we urge our readers to do so) to contact the media, AFSCME, and Quinn’s Republican critics to calmly point out to them that Quinn is calling on others to make huge sacrifices in terms of jobs, funding, and closures, at a time when he is costing the state to incur millions of dollars in additional costs and prison over-crowding simply because he has failed to reinstate the awarding of Meritorious Good Time (MGT) credits for state inmates or otherwise resolve the problem and escalated costs of state prison over-crowding. The state of IL Department of Corrections has been patiently stacking, racking, and packing in mostly low-level offenders without respite since December 2009, when Quinn suspended further awarding of MGT. It needs to be pointed out to them that not only has Quinn procrastinated over this time, but that he has been allowed to be silent and not provide any public explanation as to how much longer these additional costs to taxpayers of at least $17,000 per year per inmate will continue before he acts and to explain what his solution will be.

Real pain and suffering are being endured currently by those within the corrections system. The state prison over-crowding issue has become so bad that even some Republicans are beginning to sound the alarm, as in the article below. Even they are advocating that the state urgently needs to see some form of inmate “early release”program happen as soon as possible:

Lawmakers see ‘train wreck’ with prison overcrowding, understaffing

IL inmates have gone through a summer of humanly intolerable temperatures outside and within prison facilities which are out-dated and which not only lack air-conditioning, but which are built to aggravate temperatures within facilities. Inmates have been housed in gyms and in basements, corridors, and any place a cot can be put. The conditions reported below are not new. Vandalia prison had the same conditions reported last summer with water in basements and mold. It has just taken the John Howard Association a year to get there to tour the facility and to issue this report. Vandalia is not alone with these problems and so far IDOC is just trying to keep the lid on an explosive situation.

Group outlines harsh conditions at Ill. prison

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins, Uncategorized | Tagged: IDOC closures, Il budget cuts, IL budget proposed layoffs, IL Governor Pat Quinn, Illinois Department of corrections, Is Good time reinstated, Meritorious Good Time, Pontiac, Quinn, Quinn layoffs, Vandalia prison | Leave a Comment »

Illinois headed toward a prison meltdown?

Posted by scaryhouse on August 31, 2011

The article below is written by Kurt Erickson and appears on www.thesouthern.com. Erickson is one of the few politically savy Illinois media investigative reporters who have been following the long saga and potentially embarrassing story of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s single-handled responsibility for creating a huge fiscal mess for Illinois when he first cut off all discretionary early release efforts to release state inmates by the Illinois Department of Corrections in December 2009, and how Quinn has since then failed to act in any manner to resolve the subsequent massive overcrowding of state prisons which resulted from his action.

This is a huge political story and a wholly, self-created dilemma for the Governor that Republican legislators and fiscal critics should be jumping all over Quinn on. If played up properly by his opponents, he negative publicity Quinn deserves on this issue could suffice to render him and the Democratic party (which is mute on urging Quinn to resolve it) highly vulnerable at the polls come next election.

Basically, at a time when the State is already fiscally broke, Quinn’s action is making all state prisons, “rack, stack, and pack” prisoners who are mostly small-time, minor offenders, which the state can ill-afford to house. Quinn has added millions of dollars to the cost of state corrections, not because he first suspended the early release programs, but because he has since procrastinated since cutting off the programs by failing to take any intermediate actions to resolve the prison overcrowding or to control the actions of IDOC staff at facilites.

Evidently, Quinn’s modius operandi is to procrastinate well beyond any reasonable time period over all important issues. He has dragged his heels over policy and fiscal issues before, but the IDOC prison overcrowding affects the lives and well-being of many families and individuals.

_____________________________________________________________

BY KURT ERICKSON/the Southern.com

SPRINGFIELD – The Quinn administrations decision to continue cramming more inmates into already overcrowded prisons could put the state on the road to a lawsuit.

After packing its own prisons too tightly for decades, California officials were ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in May to slash the inmate population to 137 percent of what the overall system was designed to hold.

That has left the state scrambling to dump more than 30,000 prisoners into county-level jails or privately operated lock-ups over the next two years.

In recent months, however, officials changed the way they calculate capacity.

Instead of using an industry standard based on the number of cells, the state is now measuring capacity based on how many beds can fit in a facility. The new capacity for Illinois prisons is listed at 51,000 inmates.

A key attorney in the California lawsuit says Illinois revamped measuring stick is similar to claiming a three bedroom home can actually sleep 25 people if beds are placed in living rooms, laundry rooms and storage spaces.

“Technically, they can stack triple bunks in every room,” said Rebekah Evenson, a Berkeley-based attorney who helped shepherd the California lawsuit through the legal system.

John Maki, executive director of the John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group, said that bureaucratic maneuver could land the state in hot water.”Thats what California got in trouble for,” Maki said. “Were seeing the same kind of stuff.”

DOC differs

Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said the new capacity number reflects changes that have been made to the original design of the prisons, allowing the agency to say the state is operating at 95 percent capacity.

“Here in Illinois our prison population is not at the over-capacity level,”

Elman noted.Elman, however, said an attempt by the department to gain national accreditation was dropped after the inmate population began to grow. As part of the American Correctional Association accreditation process, prisons must meet certain specifications for square footage per inmate – a standard that may not be possible for Illinois given the additional prisoners.

Evenson said recalculating capacity based on bed space is “very, very irresponsible” because it could lead to numerous problems.

Crowding typically results in more violence behind bars. It also likely means fewer educational opportunities, which already had been reduced because of Illinois on-going budget woes.

“Mentally ill people become sicker,” Evenson said.

The increase in prisoners also has raised concerns about flat or reduced staffing levels of prison guards.

On Thursday, two Republican state senators are planning a press conference designed to spotlight staffing levels within the Department of Corrections. State Sens. John O. Jones of Mount Vernon and Shane Cultra of Onarga both represent districts that have a number of overcrowded prisons within their boundaries.

Solutions?

For now, however, it doesnt appear the Quinn administration has a solution in sight.

There are no plans on the books to build more prisons to help ease overcrowding. In fact, Illinois is in the process of selling an unused maximum-security prison to the federal government.

The department also has not made any public announcements about whether or when it will reinstate an early release program.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which represents corrections workers, said overcrowding has made the states prison system more dangerous than usual.

“Ignoring the problem is unacceptable,” noted AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall. “The state must hire staff to ensure safety and provide rehabilitative programs, and it must develop and implement a responsible good-time policy.”

via Illinois headed toward a prison meltdown?.

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins, Terrible Wrongs - Other Cases, The Causes of Wrongful Convictions, Uncategorized | Tagged: early release, IDOC, idoc early release, IDOC overcrowding, Illinois Department of corrections, illinois prison overcrowding, Is Good time reinstated, Meritorious Good Time, Pat Quinn Illinois Governor, Quinn and early release, Quinn inaction at IDOC | Leave a Comment »

Growing Evidence That Prosecutors & Courts Are Often Wrong

Posted by mikethemouth on August 28, 2011

Prosecutors are under pressure to obtain convictions at any cost; it does not seem to matter much to them whether or not a suspect is guilty. Once prosecutors charge an individual, police seldom continue to look for other suspects and the prosecutors push ahead to try to convict in court. Often evidence arises during or after trial indicating that the individual may be innocent. Although prosecutors are mandated by law to disclose all evidence to the defense which would exonerate the suspect; they seem to regard their responsibility as a technicality and seldom do. Consequently there are many wrongly convicted individuals serving prison terms for crimes they did not commit, and their ranks are swelling rapidly in some states as the emphasis on convictions continue.

The article below points out that the number of apparent wrongful convictions is now being recognized in progressive states which are recognizing the need to begin to remedy the problem. These states are taking steps to ensure that two things are available to defendants: physical evidence in criminal cases and greater access to biological evidence and DNA testing to give them the chance to prove their innocence, and states are establishing “innocence” commissions to investigate allegations of wrongful conviction and help free those who are unjustly imprisoned.

Illinois knows the extent of it’s problems with wrongful convictions. As the article points out, IL has established a “commission” to study state wrongful convictions and make recommendations lawmakers, police, and courts. This is not enough.

Illinois is one of the leading states for wrongful convictions and presently, there are only a couple of privately operated “innocence projects” in Illinois from which inmates can attempt to obtain help in investigating their cases and proving their innocence once convicted. These innocence projects are woefully underfunded and understaffed, with few resources to investigate the mountains of applications from inmates they receive yearly, in comparison to the resources available to States Attorneys to help them convict anyone.

Like North Carolina, Illinois desperately needs to establish a state-operated investigative innocence commission; lawmakers need to make legal post-conviction DNA testing a right, and prosecutors need to stop opposing reasonable efforts of individual prisoners to prove their innocence.

States look to right wrong convictions

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Terrible Wrongs - Other Cases, The Causes of Wrongful Convictions | Tagged: cost of wrongful conviction, IDOC, Illinois Department of corrections, prosecutorial misconduct, wrongful conviction | Leave a Comment »

“…We’ve got to decide who we’re mad with, and who we’re afraid of.”

Posted by smallmouth63 on June 18, 2011

If even Mississippi has discovered that it cannot afford to imprison everyone, then when are we in Illinois going to get the message?

Why Mississippi Is Reversing Its Prison Policy

“… the incarceration boom appears to be reversing. Between 2008 and 2009, state prison populations fell slightly, by 0.3%, to 1.4 million, the first such decline since the 70s. There are several reasons for the shift. The first is money. The Great Recession decimated state coffers, and is forcing governments to acknowledge they can no longer afford spending $52 billion a year locking people up. The second reason is demographics: people between 15 and 34 – prime ages for criminal activity – account for about 27% of the American population, compared to about 32% in 1990, near the violent-crime wave’s peak.

Those shifts, coupled with the over-saturation of prisons, partly explain why the violent crime rate has dropped to the lowest point in almost 40 years. Between 1997 and 2007, New York State’s prison population shrank by 9.4%, or 6,500 inmates, according to the Pew Center on the States, and the state’s violent crime rate almost halved. The takeaway, says James Austin, a leading criminal justice expert: “You can cut back on the size of the prison population without having a negative impact on crime….”

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins, Local Issues, The Causes of Wrongful Convictions | Tagged: california prison crisis, Illinois Department of corrections, prison costs, prison overcrowding, reducing prison population | Leave a Comment »

Meritorious Good Time Credits: The Buck Stops At IL Governor Pat Quinn

Posted by lactoselazy on June 18, 2011

Please note: when contacting Quinn’s office by phone, you will speak with a staffer, who will first try to feed you the line “THEY” haven’t let us know anything about when it will come back or what is happening with it; we just know that it is suspended. The staffer makes it sound like Quinn is waiting on someone else to move first. But, if you press the issue and let the staffer know that you are aware that Quinn has the power to reinstate it and that IDOC is working on it, so why hasn’t Quinn given at least announced a tentative timetable to reinstate it, etc., and talk harm, then the staffer switches to “He” hasn’t let them know, in a tone that becomes more hostile . Just gotta keep pushing!

It is now June 18, 2011, and the January – May, Illinois legislative session is over.

It was unexpected, but our state legislators ended up accomplishing a lot during the session. Observers attribute this to the influence on legislators of fiscal problems and the possibility of dwindling political power. Whatever the reasons, legislators were not only able to raise taxes for the first time in decades, but also agreed to pass a state budget instead of dumping all fiscal responsibility into the lap of the governor as they have repeatedly done over the past 5 – 6 years. State legislators deserve credit for finally knuckling down and doing their jobs, even if it did took them all session to do so and left many lesser, important issues unresolved. We politely applaud the work of our legislators and now turn our scrutiny to IL Governor Pat Quinn.

This legislative session saw the same “get tough on crime” sentiment from legislators as in the past few years. There were about the same number of bills introduced and passed this session as in during the past few years which were either intended to harshen criminal penalties for specific crimes, criminalize more actions, or else intensify the reporting requirements for parolees or IDOC. In that respect, despite all the 2010 electoral furor and hype over crime and public safety which led Quinn to suspend Meritorious Good Time Credit (MGT) for prison inmates in the first place, the 2011 legislative session was not dominated by a continuation of public safety concerns being expressed by either legislators or the public. Governor Quinn has not and was not at any time during this legislative session held hostage to any demands by others that either particular legislation be proposed or passed dealing with the issue of MGT regulations. Plenty of anti-crime bills were proposed, but they were all individual and unrelated bills which did not coalesce into a huge campaign targeted at determining or really reducing Quinn’s and IDOC’s control over MGT.

MGT was just a dot on the horizon at this legislative session. Sure, some horribly egregious “anti-crime legislation” was passed, such as the “murderers registry” which will continue to keep IL at the top of the list of a select number of “idiot” states committed to financial suicide under the erroneous belief that their taxpayers can afford to pay the massive costs of maintaining burgeoning state prison populations. But, by and large, legislators paid relatively little attention to “public safety” issues. Even Illinoisprisontalk’s, (in our opinion), misguided attempt to help legislators push a tougher MGT agenda through failed to draw legislative interest and reportedly had an outright hostile response from Quinn’s administration. A number of serious, large, anti-crime bills simply either failed to pass this session or were not seriously pursued, and legislators were instead embroiled the whole session with mainly trying to determine the state budget.

If this legislative session revealed anything, it is that the power to reinstate the awarding of Meritorious Good Time Credits (MGT) to the inmates of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), rests entirely on the political ambitions of Gov. Pat Quinn.

As most observers, we assumed this year that our state legislators had to take action to pass new laws or otherwise enact new guidelines for MGT before Gov. Pat Quinn could feel empowered enough to risk his political neck by taking any action to reinstate MGT. However, this quiet legislative session proved us wrong to assume that Governor Quinn has ever required any outside impetus to reinstate MGT. Instead, we have to tell readers that, in our opinion, Governor Quinn could have reinstated MGT at any time since January 2011, without facing massive political fallout. That Governor Quinn has not permitted IDOC to reinstate MGT or even issued a public explanation as to why he has not done so reveals to us a callous disregard for the hardships he has imposed upon the lives of IL inmates and their families and an unconcern for his public accountability on an important issue.

There is no question that Gov. Pat Quinn bears the overall responsibility for the suspension of meritorious good time credit for Illinois prison inmates and the resulting negative ways it has impacted inmates and their families since he suspended the program in December 2009. Since 1978, attorneys and the courts have been advising inmates to include the expectation of receiving MGT credit time of 90 – 180 days off a sentence for good conduct during incarceration as the basis to use in order to evaluate plea negotiations and to soften the estimate of how much of any given sentence they would have to serve.

Even right now, from December 13, 2009, when Governor Pat Quinn suspended the program, to the present, most individuals receiving sentences or accepting plea deals who are faced with going to prison today still receive the assurances from their attorneys and court personnel that they can expect to receive some amount of MGT time off their sentence. It is only when they arrive at IDOC to serve their sentences that most individuals are finding out that they are misled and that they will probably have to serve their full sentences, especially if it is less than several years. This false advice that individuals will be released earlier by months or by a year is wreaking massive havoc with the personal lives and arrangements families make in order to plan their survival while a member is incarcerated. In these difficult economic times, whole families are being placed at the unnecessary and additional financial and/or health risk by the false assumption that a wage-earner or head-of-household will be incarcerated for less time than they will actually be forced to serve.

Quinn has not acted in any manner to reduce these negative consequences of the suspension of MGT upon the lives of inmates or their families. Quinn’s state agency, IDOC has been a rumor mill working overtime at the outset of each month since December 2009, feeding inmates a line of BS about the probable and shortly anticipated return and reinstatement of MGT; a rumor which just never happens to be true. Right now, the rumor-mill is reporting that MGT will return July 1, 2011, when in reality this is just another false date, even if it is the start of the next fiscal year for the state. If Quinn was concerned about mitigating the effects of IDOC staff misinforming inmates about when MGT would return, he could easily and quickly have put a stop to IDOC staff MGT rumor-mill, but he has not done so. The IDOC staff rumor mill continues to churn. IL inmates have just increasingly learned to be wary of it since being burned on so many occasions, but those new to IDOC continue to fall into it’s trap.

At the minimum, after this substantial and legally questionable delay in state action on MGT, it is long overdue, and it would be a moral step in the right direction for Quinn to wade in and to immediately force all state agencies, attorneys, and court personnel to stop mis-advising inmates regarding the suspension of MGT and the timing of any possible return of MGT.

QUINN NOW NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!

Exactly what is Pat Quinn waiting for, and why is MGT still top-secret? We know that Quinn and IDOC do plan to reinstate MGT at some point. IDOC officials admitted publicly months ago that it has a plan underway to work to restore MGT. Supposedly, the plan involves the complete updating of IDOC’s computer system to utilize Microsoft’s new Offender 360 corrections management software. Supposedly, the plan also involves the development of new internal IDOC procedures to facilitate the correct determination of inmate eligibility for MGT and any inmate recidivist tendencies in order to minimize public safety issues from released inmates. It is also reasonable to presume that a lot of staff retraining is required.

These are all reasonable steps showing that IDOC under Quinn has put an immense effort into revamping MGT. This is laudable and will hopefully result in a revised MGT program which will clarify the rights of inmates and procedures as well as reduce the possibility that dangerous individuals will be erroneously released early into communities.

Yet, from the outset, there is no reason, and no excuse for the absence of any timeline for the completion of this process being publicly issued by Governor Quinn. As the one individual who has claimed ultimate responsibility for the suspension of a vital program affecting the lives of thousands of incarcerated individuals and their families, with particularly harsh effects upon those serving shorter sentences for less serious offenses, Quinn has failed to be upfront with those who he has harmed. Quinn could have and should have warned inmates from the outset that he envisioned this process taking at least 1 – 2 years to complete and that MGT would be suspended for at least that duration. This would have saved thousands much of the uncertainty which they have been suffering. Quinn would have faced no political criticism for announcing such a timeline, particularly since winning re-election.

Governor Quinn needs to hear a public outcry from readers concerning our entitlement to some knowledge after all this time about when MGT will be reinstated. After all, what is a date, and how hard can it be for him to issue even a tentative one? It is apparent that work on the plan has progressed well toward the stage of completion. Sure, there is the possibility that the funding to complete transition to the Offender 360 software may not be in place in 2012, but even that problem appears to be working itself out to some resolution in legislative funding. Both IDOC and Quinn have a target date to reinstate MGT, and inmate families deserve to know what this is. We urge readers to click on this link to visit Governor Pat Quinn’s Website and either e-mail him on the page, or write or call him at the address listed. Instruct him that it is time for him to be upfront with the thousands of inmates left hanging by his suspension of MGT. Tell him he has a moral obligation to make a public announcement (even with a tentative date) about when MGT will be reinstated, and that no one constituency should continue to be sacrificed to protect his political ambitions and left to deal with unnecessary hardship and misadvice simply because he remains needlessly afraid of political criticism.

Posted in IDOC, Uncategorized | Tagged: Governor Pat Quinn, IDOC good time, Illinois Department of corrections, Is Good time reinstated, Meritorious Good Time, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Offender 360, Quinn, return of good time | 8 Comments »

ILprisontalk.com apparently halts legislative campaign

Posted by parchangelo on May 29, 2011

The ILprisontalk.com website was down all day and just recently came back up tonight. While it was down, the website administrators removed all mention of and posts of the campaign ILprisontalk.com waged since May 25, 2011, during which it urged it’s readers to contact legislators and urge them to pass the four pending bills dealing with correction issues which the legislature had not yet been able to pass this session. ILprisontalk removed 14 pages of postings and instead left this message in their place:

__________________________________________

IPT Members,

Since late 2009 and early 2010, we have been a constant state of confusion over the suspension and return of MGT. Rumors have plagued this site, resulting in dashed hopes and even heated arguments. No one who understands and values IPT wants that.

Nothing has changed with MGT. We still know nothing. Only Governor Quinn knows when or how it will return. And he isn’t giving out any information. The administrators and staff of IPT have nothing new to give as far as information, though, like many of you, we pray MGT is returned soon.

IPT cares deeply for the concerns of its members, but having an endless and stressful discussion does little good. Besides the petition, which you are encouraged to sign, and a great series of reports, this board is now closed. No posts will be allowed, except from the administrators of IPT. If you post a new topic, it will be removed.

When the administrators of IPT receive any concrete news concerning MGT, it will be posted for all members to see as promised.

_____________________________________________

This action can only be interpreted as the realization by ILprisontalk that, as we stated in our May 25, 2011, post questioning the wisdom of their campaign, that urging the passage of these specific correctional pending bills only works to harm the interests of IL inmates and does nothing to hasten the return or reinstatement the awarding of Meritorious Good Time Credits (MGT) by the IL Department of Corrections (IDOC). Reader posts on ILprisontalk indicated that state legislators began responding that a separate effort is underway within IDOC to reinstate MGT; one that will just take more time, not more “get tough on crime” legislation.

IDOC and state of IL officials already said previously that work to devise a new program and revise internal department procedures within IDOC so as to permit the return of MGT as soon as possible, has been the top priority within IDOC for some time. It was outdated computer equipment and faulty procedures which were cited in the Erickson Report as the primary culprits for IDOC’s suspension of MGT in the first place. IDOC started updating it’s entire computer system with the new Microsoft 360 Offender software sometime ago and revising internal procedures. IDOC will continue with this work, and independent of whatever bills may or may not pass this legislative session, it is this updating process within IDOC which will determine when MGT is finally reinstated. Governor Quinn will not reinstate MGT until he feels confident that the agency will not repeat it’s internal errors and release any inmate earlier than required to do so if it finds that they may be a safety risk to the public.

July 1, 2011, has been tossed around in discussions as to a possible date by which changes within IDOC will be complete enough to permit Quinn to reinstate MGT. July 1, 2011, remains just a guess at this point, no better than any other, and we place no reliance upon it, because nothing official has issued from or within IDOC to show that it is the date that MGT will return. Something official would need to issue about now in order for IDOC to re-implement on July 1, 2011, something as big an action as the reinstatement of MGT. At least one legislative press release mentions MGT issues not being taken up by legislators until their return in November 2011.

ILprisontalk has been highly critical of individuals posting “rumors” on it’s website claiming that MGT will return at one point or the other. It has been quick to ban certain posters of that information from further posting on it’s website, including the one poster who tried to alert ILprisontalk that it’s campaign to urge readers to help pass anti-inmate legislative bills was misguided. We hope that ILprisontalk will now recognize that it also got caught up in the “rumor-mill” and be upfront with it’s readers and clarify the reason for dropping it’s recent campaign for urging passage of these bills. We hope it will not leave it’s readers wondering what is going on and what happened to these bills: SB 1341, SB 1560, SB 1561, SB 1562. Deadlines for actions on all four bills were extended to May 31, 2011, as a result of the IPT campaign, but fortunately, chances remain low that any of them will pass before this legislative session ends due to higher legislative priorities.

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins, Local Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged: IDOC, Illinois Department of corrections, Is Good time reinstated, Meritorious Good Time, MGT, Microsoft Dynamics | Leave a Comment »

Effort by IL Prisontalk regarding MGT? Is it Wise?

Posted by parchangelo on May 25, 2011

Attention:

This evening IL prisontalk (IPT) sent a letter to all it’s members advising them the contact their local representatives and get them to sign on to sponsor and pass four bills which have stagnated in the IL General Assembly this session and which are in danger of not passing due to lack of support from legislators.

We, at this website, understand the urgency behind everyone wanting inmates in the IL Department of Corrections to once again begin receiving Meritorious Good Time (MGT) to reduce the length of their sentences. We want MGT to return too and we also want it to return as soon as possible. However, we have noted all too often how lots of people equate any bill which mentions or proposes to alter laws or legislation related to MGT, and which happens to be introduced into the General Assembly, as a bill which will either reinstate MGT or help it return. IN ACTUALITY, THIS WILL NEVER BE THE CASE.!!! The current legislative session is almost over. All bills have been introduced, and THERE IS NOT ONE BILL PENDING WHICH AUTHORIZES THE RETURN OF MGT!!!!

MGT will not return due to anything that happens this session in the General Assembly. MGT will return when it returns, and that means that it will return when Governor Quinn is confident that the agency under his control, the IL Department of Corrections (IDOC) can once again issue MGT to inmates without making a mistake and accidentally releasing someone back into the community who is dangerous and who will commit a crime for which IDOC and Quinn can be blamed.

So, what does THAT mean? What it means, in our opinion, is that Quinn does not care if these 4 bills mentioned below in the IPT letter are passed or not. What it means is that Quinn only cares that he has systematically raked over IDOC and restructured it’s staff, equipment (updated computers), and procedures so as to ensure that when MGT is reinstated that no one under his control will screw up again and make the same mistake they made before he suspended the MGT push program. Quinn wants no more embarrassments, so no matter what the legislators do, he will not reinstate MGT until he feels IDOC is ready to handle it.

So, for this reason, while we are posting this letter by IL prisontalk; that we cannot endorse it’s call to action. We cannot advise any of us readers to respond to it and do as IL prisontalk asks.

We have carefully examined the ramifications of what IL prisontalk is advocating that it’s members do, and we do not like them. Basically, here is why:

ILprisontalk is an organization which is highly regarded as an advocate for the rights of IL prisoners. These bills which it is advocating to be passed, are not bills which will help out the situation or requirements placed on IL inmates. These bills are restrictive bills which will diminish the rights of IL inmates. They are also unnecessary bills, since it was long ago determined that there is no problem with the laws already on the books regarding Meritorious Good Time; it is simply that IDOC screwed up in 2009 in implementing a program. There is no reason to push to pass new, more restrictive laws. They will not stop IDOC from making mistakes again.

IPT’s proposed action will only serve to legitimize the fear-mongering that state politicians continue to use to whip the public up against crime, time after time. Right now, state legislators apparently don’t have the support (even among themselves) to pass these four bills, because they have bigger budget issues which they are focused on. IPT’s action will give them the support to claim that they not only have a “public mandate” to act on public safety and pass these bills, but that they also have the support of opponents who are usually against these type of bills which add restrictions on to prisoners. State legislators will now be able to claim that even advocates for prisoners apparently believe that tougher laws are required in order to protect the public. This means that they will be even more vocal against the rights of “criminals” in the future.

Look at each of the bills below:

Synopsis As Introduced

SB1560
Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the Department of Corrections shall establish uniform procedures for providing timely advance notice of early release of inmates to law enforcement in local jurisdictions and shall submit a report to the General Assembly, by January 1, 2012, of those notice procedures. Provides that the 14-day advance notice of early release of an inmate because of the award of good conduct credit for meritorious service shall be provided to the Governor and sheriff of the county where the prosecution took place. Effective immediately.

SB 1341
Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the Director of Corrections shall not award good conduct credit for meritorious service to an inmate unless the inmate has served a minimum of 60 days in the custody of the Department of Corrections. Effective immediately.

SB1561
Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the Department of Corrections shall prescribe rules and regulations for revoking good conduct credit awarded for meritorious service. Effective immediately.

SB1562
Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the Director of Corrections shall provide the Governor with monthly written reports, and the General Assembly with an annual written report, on the award of good conduct credit for meritorious service. Provides that these reports must include: (1) the number of inmates awarded good conduct credit for meritorious service; (2) the jurisdictions from which these inmates were committed and into which they were or will be released; (3) the average amount of good conduct credit for meritorious service awarded; (4) the holding offenses for good conduct credit for meritorious service awardees; and (5) the number of good conduct credit for meritorious service revocations. Provides that as to both reports, the Department of Corrections must publish the reports on its website within 48 hours of transmitting them to the respective parties. Effective immediately.

If passed, these four bills will add restrictions and make it more difficult to legally challenge what some regard as the state’s arbitrary decision to revoke MGT. Whenever MGT is reinstated, some individuals who are not eligible for it because of the new laws may want to challenge their individual deprivation of MGT upon the basis that they would have been eligible for it under the old laws.

More importantly though, IPT apparently believes that the return of MGT can be hurried along if we all just “give in”, by satisfying the appetites of lawmakers and help make it as tough as possible to qualify for MGT, so that Gov. Quinn gets to the point that he believes he can go ahead and reinstate MGT without everyone squawking.

We don’t think that this will happen because, again, we think that Quinn ain’t gonna move on MGT till he is satisfied that IDOC is completely in ready for MGT, and that has nothing to do with the law. State legislators can pass one bill or 30 bills this session which have to do with MGT and crime; it all does not matter to Quinn how many bills they pass and which bills are passed. Whatever happens, if someone is released, as long as IDOC follows the letter of whatever laws are passed; Quinn will not have to take the heat. Quinn will shrug off responsibility at the time and just say that the legislators had the chance this session to pass a law on it and that they did not do so and therefore, it is not his fault.

Quinn will be able to avoid responsibility for the failure of any law being passed. What he will not be able to shrug off responsibility for is the failure of IDOC to follow the law and if it releases someone early who it should not have released because they were either not eligible for MGT or IDOC overlooks information showing they are dangerous. So, if IDOC makes a mistake, Quinn will be on the hook again for it in time for the next election cycle, and this is what he wants to avoid. That is why we say that the return of MGT will have nothing to do with these four bills; it will only return when Quinn feels IDOC is ready to handle MGT.

We know that our advice is likely to be unpopular here, but again, we cannot advise readers to join the IPT effort on these four bills. We feel that IPT’s efforts are a mistake which will have negative effects and can only make them and others less effective in the future when trying to work on behalf of prisoners. IPT previously advised that they heard information from reliable sources that MGT is due to return July 1, 2011, but now, IPT is apparently starting to backpedal from this prediction. We are all frustrated over the suspension of MGT and it’s effect on many families, but we must stop short of desperation…

______________________________________________________

Dear IPT Members,

As everyone is well aware, we are in the midst of trying to get the state legislature to pass 4 bills pertaining to the restoration of MGT.

These are SB 1338, 1341, 1560, and 1562. These are bills that were sponsored in the Illinois Senate by Senator Kirk Dillard, a west suburban Republican. These bills allow the Director to award MGT up to 180 days, to inmates that qualify under rules established by the Senate. This bill won unanimous approval in the Senate and was sent to the House.

Once in the Rules Committee, Rep. Will Burns signed on as sponsor, but later abandoned them. These bills are sitting in committee right now as we speak with no sponsor. If no sponsor is signed on to move these bills out of committee, they die and have to be done all over again when they come back in December. Speaker Madigan’s office has agreed to give us until the 29th to find a sponsor for these bills. It is going to be an uphill battle. They are dealing with budgets, redistricting, pension reform and all this has to be done by the 31st.

We are asking everyone to call their state reps, whether Republican or Democrat, and ask them to sign on as sponsors to this bill. Here is how we do this. Call your State Representative in their Springfield office as they are in session until May 31st. All numbers for your Rep can be located at www.ilga.gov. Click on House, then click Members….scroll down to your Rep and click on the name. Please make your call before 9 am, so that it is done before they get fully started on their day.

Give the person that answers the phone the SB numbers and tell them that this is important legislation that affects every taxpayer in the state, and that you are a registered voter in their district. Also tell them that these bills award MGT to NON VIOLENT OFFENDERS ONLY! Make sure they understand that as well as this will positively affect the state’s strained budget. Ask them to inform the Representative that these bills die on 05/29/2011 with out a sponsor.

The Representative may call you back and ask you for more info on it. Tell them you appreciate very much them taking time out of their schedule to call back. Explain to the Rep. the importance of this legislation. Tell them the hard work is already done and that all we need is a sponsor to move it out of committee and bring it to the floor.

The past year has been filled with frustration and lost patience. We now have an opportunity to make a difference in an issue we all feel passionately about. Please call your Representative, ASAP, early tomorrow morning and urge them to take up sponsorship of these bills.

Regards,

IPT Administrators and Staff
The Illinois Prison Talk Team.

http://www.illinoisprisontalk.com/index.php

Posted in IDOC | Tagged: IDOC, Illinois Department of corrections, Illinoisprisontalk.com, ILprisontalk, IPT, Is Good time reinstated, Meritorious Good Time, MGT | 2 Comments »

Proposed Murderers Registry Law for IL is not in the public interest!

Posted by mikethemouth on May 9, 2011

Illinois has become a very punitive state for convicted individuals. Over the past 10 years, with the tacit approval of state voters, our state politicians have passed many laws which have rapidly ratcheted up the severity level of punishments dealt out to those who commit a wide array of violent and even non-violent crimes. Similar to most states, individuals convicted in IL currently face the possibility of extended term sentencing, three-strikes laws, and are receiving longer sentences in general for both the serious and lesser crimes they commit. Yet, IL is now taking action to move beyond the accepted national trend of dealing out harsh punishment to offenders toward also punishing them for the rest of their lives.

Offenders in IL now face prospects that no one could possibly anticipate anywhere else: the possibility that once they have served the term of their imprisonment that they will continue to experience a high level of public scrutiny and intrusion into the conduct of the remainder of their private lives under the guise of “protecting public safety”. In our opinion, it is time for IL voters to wake up and put the brakes on state politicians. IL residents need to examine whether the proposed laws now under consideration by the state legislature which will authorize the wholescale tracking of past offenders and place unnecessary obstacles in their path to social rehabilitation are really going to serve “the best interests” of the public.

House Bill 263 calls for Illinois State Police to create a murderer registry database available on the Internet of those convicted of first-degree murder. The information would include much more than the name, residence address, place of employment, school attended and a photograph of the offender. It would require those convicted of first degree murder and released by IDOC within the ten years before the passage of this law to provide:

“…a current photograph, current address, current place of employment, the employer’s telephone number, school attended, all e-mail addresses, instant messaging identities, chat room identities, and other Internet communications identities that the first-degree murder uses or plans to use,” (including) “all Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) registered or used by the first-degree murderer, all blogs and other Internet sites maintained by the first-degree murderer or to which the first degree murderer has uploaded any content or posted any messages or information…”

There are approximately 500 convicted first-degree murderers currently on parole and another 3,000 who will eventually be released from prison.

IL already now requires a plethora of personal, sensitive information about all past offenders who are released early by IDOC to be made public and listed for two years on a “Community Notification” page on the IL Department of Corrections website. While the information on the IDOC “CN” page is not as extensive as what is being proposed for released murderers, some released offenders have already had unwanted encounters with the public. Some state it is harder for them to find housing and jobs. Their families also suffer having their addresses listed for housing them.

A few voices are pointing out the drawbacks to the proposed murderers registry:

A Chicago Sun-Times editorial, A registry for killers more harm than good, points out, that “…there is no compelling evidence that people who have committed murder are likely to commit murder again, especially after serving a 20- to 30-year prison term….and, …that the tougher we make it for ex-offenders to find and keep a legitimate job, the more likely they are to return to crime.” This is also the argument of State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), the lone vote in the IL House against bill 263: “…unlimited registries for ex-convicts increase the likelihood that they would commit more crimes.” (See, House OKs registry for killers).

Even, it’s legality is questionable, as the law will apply retroactively to individuals who were convicted and served their time prior to the enactment of the law. This will certainly open it to legal challenges as mentioned in the below article:

Would a registry for convicted murderers be legal?

It is an absurdity obvious to outsiders that at a time when IL is stretched to it’s fiscal limits and it’s prisons are overcrowded to the max; that IL stubbornly continues to insist on punitively punishing offenders and saddling state taxpayers with associated costs which they cannot afford to pay. Other states are using common sense in the effort to reduce prison populations and costs and help their offenders re-intergrate back into society to become productive citizens. IL will continue to be a backward state until it’s taxpayers take control of their politicians.

Posted in IDOC, IL in Fiscal Ruins, Local Issues, Terrible Wrongs - Other Cases, Uncategorized | Tagged: HB 263, House Bill 263, IDOC, IL fiscal irresponsibility, Illinois Department of corrections, murderers registry, offender tracking, punitive punishment, questionable legality, retroactive law | Leave a Comment »

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Evidently, Quinn’s modius operandi is to procrastinate well beyond any reasonable time period over all important issues. He has dragged his heels over policy and fiscal issues before, but the IDOC prison overcrowding affects the lives and well-being of many families and individuals.

If this legislative session revealed anything, it is that the power to reinstate the awarding of Meritorious Good Time Credits (MGT) to the inmates of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), rests entirely on the political ambitions of Gov. Pat Quinn.

QUINN NOW NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!

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