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

We are more than halfway through the 2011, Illinois legislative session, and literally, almost nothing has been accomplished in Springfield except posturing. The early session  momentum once present to make joint decisions on the IL budget crisis has been entirely dispelled. The Republicans, Democrats, Madigan, and Governor Quinn are all now in separate corners with no alliances between them. In other words, this is the same situation so far as in prior years. The parties, trying to resolve the budget crisis have been unable to agree on a solution. This has tied up or prevented progress or consideration of other issues, and in the end, once the wrangling has extended out past the end of the session to July or later, everyone just throws up their hands, votes for a sum and passes it all to Quinn to fund as he likes and somehow muddle through.

Madigan continues to claim that this year will be different and that the legislature will somehow come together to agree on a budget which will be significantly leaner than the one Quinn has proposed and that they will pass it shortly, perhaps this month. We are not holding our breath that this will happen. Quinn passed a tax increase, but he did not get a measure passed to somehow pay down the huge pile of State bills, and these bills are increasing. With the tax increase, there is the prospect of more money coming into the State, which so far, has only expanded the prospects of arguing about how to spend it. Budget spending caps were set, but at the rate the legislature is arguing, these may even be exceeded and cost the State the tax increase.

So, where does this leave the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)? Well, IDOC is stuck firmly in the muddle. There has been NO, repeat NO, movement on the reinstatement of Meritorious Good Time (MGT). Right now, inmates can expect to serve their full sentence term, minus day-for-day, schooling and treatment credits. We were hoping to be able to report some potential action on MGT by now, but there is none. All the legislative attention is still on working out some sort of budget for year and resolving back bills. No one in the legislature is talking about any real IDOC issues which affect inmates. Inmates and their families continue to be hurt by the MGT suspension and hoping it will come back, but for now, we have to say that it looks now like there will be no action this Spring or this summer. Quinn cannot reinstate MGT without a legislative consensus. MGT will probably not even be discussed until IDOC’s computer conversion to Microsoft’s Offender 360 software is nearly complete. That upgrade will probably take the rest of this year.

That is not to say that there are not plenty of red herrings out there. Rumors are still rampant in IDOC and people are checking the legislative bills pending and trying to read all kinds of stuff into any IDOC related bill introduced into the legislature. Readers have to keep in mind that the push by certain conservative legislators during sessions for the past several years is to tighten the screws on legal penalties for “criminals” whenever possible. So this year, as in the past, these legislators have introduced a slew of “corrections” bills which are on paper, but which have to work themselves out of committee and be voted on by the legislative bodies as a whole before there is any possibility that they could become law. No one should be working themselves up over these bills as they stand right now. That is not to say that it is not a good idea to keep up on them; particularly if it is a bill which may affect you if ever approved. If that is the case, find out the legislator who originated the bill and co-signers and send them your thoughts on the bill. But, don’t get hyper just because the bill is there. Remember that many bills do not pass and that even when they do, they usually get reworked a lot before passing.

Other states are recognizing that the legislative push to criminalize everything is counter-productive to state budgets and that we taxpayers cannot afford this. The article below, from the Telegraph, illustrates how this understanding is spreading in this country:

State budget crises push sentencing reforms

So, there are some smart people out there who see that the US is maxed out on criminal penalties at a great social cost. And, there are also advocates for inmates and sentencing reform in Illinois who are organizing to make this clear to our own legislators:

Advocates Seek New Road For Criminal Justice Policy

This article from Progress Illinois shows that there are a number of Illinois organizations, individuals and advocacy groups who monitor corrections legislation and catch the drift of the consequences of lawmakers who run amok with “anti-crime” legislation. We suggest that readers support their efforts to publicize the negative impact of these bills by writing to legislators in opposition of them. We will run through the brunt of these bills in another post, but if you want to help, write your legislators, particularly the republicans.