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Retired News Reporter ~ Prison Reform Advocate
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« on: August 25, 2010, 05:02:09 PM » |
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Early Release Fable Masks Real Problem
August 25, 2010
BY STEPHEN F. EISENMAN
As if Illinois didn't have enough real scandals, the state's political and journalist classes have created one out of whole cloth. And it might actually determine who will become the state's next governor.
Since the February primaries, one issue has consistently dogged Gov. Quinn: a supposed secret plan to release hundreds of convicted felons from state prisons. The purpose of the purported scheme, hatched with his prison director Michael Randle, was to save money. Within days of the charge, outlined in an AP story last December, Quinn denied knowledge of the plan, publicly rebuked Randle and took steps to return the parolees to prison.
But the issue has not gone away. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady has repeatedly charged that the scheme, called MGT-push (Meritorious Good Time), allowed violent ex-cons to run rampant across Illinois.
Last week, an investigative panel determined that MGT-push "was a mistake." Quinn and Brady immediately claimed vindication. Quinn asserted that his prompt actions averted disaster, while Brady said a Republican initiative to limit MGT has probably saved lives. He has called for the firing of Randle and termed the prisoner release "one of the greatest lapses of public safety in recent history."
There is one problem with this story: It is false from beginning to end.
1) Nobody was "released early"; all prisoners served terms mandated by law or determined by judges and state's attorneys.
2) The scheduled release of prisoners under MGT-push was not a secret but was publicly announced by Randle at a press conference in September 2009, and the names of the released convicts were on an Illinois Department of Corrections website.
3) MGT-push did not endanger the public; the average sentence reduction was just 36 days, and there is no reason to think that an extra month of prison would have reduced recidivism rates.
4) Most states have some version of MGT or MGT-push.
5) The Republican bill to restrict MGT has already increased the state's prison population by more than 2,500 at a cost of more than $64 million per year.
If the tale of MGT-push is a fable, why has it been repeated so often by the press, and its basic elements uncontested by the governor and his IDOC chief?
The answer is publicity and expediency. For the daily press, the tangle of laws and regulations regarding release time for good behavior does not make a compelling story. The rules are generations old, constantly changing and of byzantine complexity, with some credits awarded at the moment of sentencing, others before actual prison placement, and still others for participation in drug treatment and other life-skills classes or completion of a GED. All these awards have the effect of reducing the prison population, rewarding good behavior in prison and saving money. But as rehabilitation programs have diminished in recent years, more MGT has been awarded to prisoners -- primarily nonviolent ones serving short sentences. Without MGT, the prison population would rise to unsustainable levels.
Indeed, the impetus for MGT-push -- the slightly accelerated program of release -- was to halt the hemorrhage of money caused by what the IDOC calls its "61-day wonders." These are the prisoners whose sentences are so short they must be released before they have access to any drug rehabilitation or mental health treatment, thus wasting the thousands of dollars spent to transport, evaluate and classify them. Formerly, the IDOC kept these people in prison for at least 60 days before they were eligible for release, but under MGT-push, that policy was relaxed. (More than 25 percent of people in Illinois prisons are there for drug-related offenses; more than 13 percent have serious mental illnesses).
Brady has found his own Willie Horton in a prisoner named Edjuan Payne, who in May murdered a Peoria grandmother after his early release. (In fact, Payne was not set free under MGT-push but based upon a careful -- but evidently mistaken -- evaluation of his record by a bipartisan and law-enforcement-heavy Prisoner Review Board. He had been convicted of a nonviolent offense.)
The problem with Illinois corrections is not MGT-push. The problem is severe overcrowding and a 50 percent recidivism rate. Right now, nearly 50,000 inmates are housed in facilities designed to hold just 31,000. Thousands of these prisoners are being held for crimes such as shoplifting and marijuana possession. Thousands more are incarcerated for mere technical violations of their parole. These prisoners cost Illinois a yearly average of $25,000 each.
Illinois is now poised to elect its next governor based upon a lie that may damage the state for a generation.
Stephen F. Eisenman, a professor of art history at Northwestern University, is the author of seven books, including The Abu Ghraib Effect(Reaktion/U. of C. Press, 2007).
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