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May 31, 2012, State Legislature passes new law paving way for Early Release programs! Read latest at http://richardwanke.com

Shortly after Governor Quinn suspended the IDOC early release program known as MGT Push, Quinn appointed former appellate and senior lecturer at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Judge David Erickson, to review the early release programs.  The news media reported yesterday that according to Judge Erickson, he had initially planned to report back his findings in January 2010, but he got side-tracked and now plans to wrap up his program review shortly and report his findings in early July 2010. (Read Pantagraph News article here) The 59-year-old Erickson  heads a team including Quinn’s chief of staff, Jerome Stermer, and the governor’s lawyer Theodore Chung. The team is charged with reviewing every aspect of the program, creating policies and procedures that will ensure public safety and maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system and the courts’ sentencing of offenders, and issuing a report to the governor.

Erickson says he had several out-of-state teaching assignments which delayed completion of his review, but that his report findings may also include a section regarding IDOC’s computer system which IDOC blamed for misidentifying 400 early release parolees. (Read report from KWQC in Davenport, IA, here)

A lot of inmate families have been calling Quinn, IDOC, and legislators pushing for action of reinstating IDOC early release programs. Perhaps they should have been calling Erickson. We will see. At least everyone can be hopeful about Erickson’s initial perspective regarding early release programs when he stated back in December 2009: “Meritorious good time is not our enemy here, it’s not. It’s a good thing. It’s a way to help rehabilitate people, especially young people.” although he cautioned then that early release time should be earned before it is awarded.

Hopefully, the findings and recommendations in Erickson’s report will be publicly known shortly and will help reinstate early release sooner. There has been misinformation widely distributed on the internet and also within IDOC facilities about the reinstatement of IDOC Early Release programs. This has created a lot of confusion for the families of inmates who do not know who to contact for information about the possibility of early release for their loved ones in IDOC, and confusion among IDOC inmates themselves who have been given conflicting reports by counselors and correctional officers.

Last week a “fake memo” was apparently created by a correctional officer at the Vandalia Correctional Facility, and copies of it circulated like wildfire among the inmates as it was accepted as being true. The memo referred to the return of early release in July 2010. The Warden of the Vandalia Correctional Facility was forced to issue his own memo and post it publicly advising everyone that there has been no action on early release and that it “will return when it returns”. The correctional officer involved has been disciplined.