http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/09/quinns-embattled-prisons-chief-to-leave-for-new-job.html Quinn's embattled prisons chief to leave for new job
Posted by Monique Garcia and Ray Long at 12:01 a.m.
The state prisons chief who took the blame for a botched prisoner early release program under Gov. Pat Quinn is resigning as the Democratic governor seeks to stem the political damage from an election-year controversy.
Michael Randle is leaving to “pursue a new opportunity,” Quinn spokeswoman Ashley Cross confirmed late Wednesday. He will remain on the job until Sept. 17 to help with the transition for his replacement, who will be named “shortly,” said Cross.
Today, the Quinn administration plans to formally announce Randle’s departure for an out-of-state job. Randle could not be reached Wednesday.
Acting on Quinn's general instructions to cut costs, Randle started a program last September that sped up the rate prisoners could earn good time credit. That lead to 1,745 inmates being let out an average of 36 days before the end of their sentence. Some convicts were released almost immediately, before corrections officials could assess their rehabilitation needs. And some of those released early went on to commit additional crimes.
A Quinn-appointed panel criticized the program as “ill-conceived” last month, finding that it traded protecting the public safety for $3.4 million in savings.
The governor said he had been unaware of the program but maintained that he would not fire Randle, though he acknowledged he had considered it. Quinn said he was standing by Randle because he was an experienced prisons administrator who helped bring about major reforms at the state’s troubled supermax prison.
“Clearly, mistakes were made,” Quinn said Aug. 13. “I take accountability for the mistakes, the director who made the mistakes takes responsibility for them.”
Quinn halted the program in December, but the issue became a flashpoint in the Democratic primary campaign. Comptroller Dan Hynes accused Quinn of putting public safety in jeopardy and nearly overcame a major deficit in the polls. Quinn’s Republican governor challenger, Sen. Bill Brady, has picked up where Hynes left off, calling on Quinn to fire Randle.
Rep. Will Davis, a Homewood Democrat who is chairman of the General Assembly’s black caucus, said he is “disappointed” because he believed Randle had plans for strong prison reforms, including ideas to improve education and job training to reduce the number of people who go back to prison.
The Randle news came the same day Quinn came out against the Chicago Police Department’s recent private meeting with West Side gang leaders to address violence. The governor said authorities should focus on taking assault weapons from gang members. Mayor Richard Daley and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald both defended the police meeting.
Illinois’ early-release program, known as Meritorious Good Time, had been in place for decades as a way to reward inmates who had shown signs of rehabilitation. But over the years, it had been misused to control prison populations, with time awarded to inmates who had not earned it, according to the Quinn commission report.
Accelerating a bad system, as Randle did last September, only made things worse, the panel found. The approach tagged some convicts with short sentences for nearly immediate release before the Corrections Department could even begin to assess their rehabilitation needs, the report said.
“The MGT Push program was a mistake. Although focused on reducing costs during a fiscal crisis, it failed to accomplish the overriding goals of the state's Code of Corrections: protecting the public's safety and restoring inmates to useful citizenship,” the report states.
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