Quinn Outlines Budget - IDOC Cut $30M

[Forevermah]

Wonder where he is making the cuts from within IDOC 

Quinn Outlines Budget Cuts

Clout Street reports Governor Quinn’s office released documents outlining the $3 billion in budget cuts his administration made since taking the helm from impeached ex. Governor Rod Blagojevich. Illinois lawmakers have been requesting documents detailing the cuts for months. Some of the cuts Quinn made include:

    * Millions from the Department of Aging - $20 million from the Circuit Breaker Program, which assists senior citizens with tax grants and prescription drugs and another $64 million from salary increases for home care workers.

    * Close to $300 million from the Department of Human Services, including $217 million from services for people with developmental disabilities.

    * Millions from the Department of Agriculture including $2.2 million for research grants.

    * Nearly $30 million from the Illinois Department of Corrections, including the elimination of several grants that helped fund anti-violence programs and Operation CeaseFire.

[Puzzled]

Well I guess writers of Chicago Trib need to gear up future article titles to start reading : The homicide that could have been avoided. Now I remember why I don't live there.  Thanks Mah       

The homicide that didn't happen
 
February 9, 2011
When the Chicago Police Department announced the 2010 homicide numbers last month for the city, it was big news. Chicago's murder rate hasn't been that low since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

But statistics, even good ones, can only convey so much. The important stories behind the data are the homicides that didn't happen.

Consider the homicide that didn't happen a year ago on Chicago Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. At the time, two warring gangs were enforcing a boundary line between their respective territories. People who lived nearby knew not to cross that line without the very real threat of getting shot.

One day, a 14-year-old boy was walking to school when he accidentally crossed that line. The price for his mistake was a bullet to his back. The shooting wasn't fatal, but he was paralyzed from the waist down. What happened next would determine whether more lives were destroyed.

There was immediately a move to retaliate. The days that followed saw threats and counterthreats by gang members with the means and motive to back them up. The invisible boundary line wouldn't hold for long.


When two trained violence interrupters with histories in those two gangs caught wind of the escalating danger, they intervened and were able to calm the situation, and after a month even persuaded the rival factions to sit down. They eventually negotiated a peace treaty, and today the boundary line is gone. More important, there hasn't been a single shooting related to that conflict since.

Imagine if that story had ended differently and that retaliation did happen. The cycle of violence would have continued. More funerals. More hospital bills. More police time spent trying to catch the shooters. More court time. More jail time and costs of incarceration. More kids growing up without fathers, raised in more violent neighborhoods, even more destined to repeat the cycle.

That is what does not happen when we stop a single homicide.

The positive trends we're seeing locally are a credit to the many groups and individuals who have worked hard and smart to bring down Chicago's murder rate and change the underlying culture that allows violence to spread. Superintendent Jody Weis deserves credit as well, for working hard to improve the Chicago Police Department, community relations and the use of data for tracking and responding to criminal activity.

Any new mayor will undoubtedly be under pressure to keep the murder rate low. At the same time, he or she will have to make difficult budget decisions. It will be tempting for the new administration to pit law enforcement against prevention, always a false and shortsighted choice.

The good news is that the new mayor will have an unprecedented opportunity to continue to weaken the cycle of violence. The assets that we have and the momentum that we have built will only matter if our leaders in Chicago have the vision, not of homicide stats, but of the homicide that does not need to happen.

Dr. Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist, is the founder and executive director of CeaseFire. Tio Hardiman is the director for CeaseFire Illinois.

 
Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune

[Forevermah]

Maybe if Quinn did the right thing and reinstated MGT, which would free up many thousands of $$$, they would have the extra dollars to keep those programs like Opeartion CeaseFire going, programs they need to keep things in check. Chicago is a good City, but like anyplace else, it needs people who know how to run it and to do the right thing!!  Jody Weis gets a bad rap all the time, but he has done many GOOD things too!

[me]

This is just another ridiculous political decision that will cost the state more $$ in the end by having no intervention and only widening the revolving door of inmates to IDOC - especially from Chicago where inner city youth are so at risk with almost 0 resources. 

[Puzzled]

Mah in order for them to hit $30 Mil, I suspect MGT being reintroduced is already part of that thought process.  But that won't stop the program cut backs.  As usual it is shaping up as politicians short term  $$$ goals blind to the long term  $$$ costs.

 It's not just IL dealing with deficits nor is Quin unique by any means to cutting deep in the area of Corrections and related programs.  They are the first line of action to empty $$$ from... and the last in line for replenishing those funds in good economic times.  Problem is it's happening in just about all states right now.   

I expect crime and recidivism to be on the rise in all the states and gang lords everywhere reading this....are busy planning on the only growth and windfall profits to be made of this deal.           

[Forevermah]

This is a FACT and it was written back in August of 2010, taken from this topic:

http://www.illinoisprisontalk.org/index.php/topic,20925.0.html



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

[Puzzled]

I wasn't aware it was that much.  So then it makes no sense if MGT reinstates based on the number of releases ...why would they be looking to cut out these other programs?   Even if they revamp the eligibity guidelines for MGT they should have the target funds without disturbing the rest?

[seaturtle]

well, that simply makes sense doesn't it Puzzled?  And we all know what IDOC & the government does usually does NOT make sense.


 

[Puzzled]

Your right Seaturtle.... since my L/O has been incarcerated in IL I've been listening more to the politics of IL but being in Wi I listen to that too.......I just cringe!!!  I personally think our Gov Walker is the worst thing to ever happen to Wi.  I see him and I think of Blago II.  Maybe it's too idealist thinking but I bet if whistle blowers started to publicize the $$$ waste going on in the states....There wouldn't be a deficit anywhere to be found.         

[JDsMom]

Wonder if those idiots in Springfield even considered taking a pay cut ???????? Geez, punish those who need it the most, way to go Quinn, and all who contributed to this "budget". Folks, you get what you vote for.....remember that, and next time, go look at their voting records BEFORE you cast your vote!

[lost222]

Bottomline is this state is in SERIOUS finacial trouble.   Cuts are going to have to be made across the board to every department and service or we are going to be the next california and have to file bankruptcy.   I know it sucks for us to see IDOC on the list of departments that are getting budget cuts but look at the bottom line.  And we will hear crying from all kinds of people when their services are cut but its the reality of our financial situation.   Wouldnt matter which one was in office right now.  Cuts HAD to be made.

[Puzzled]

Cuts have to be made in virtually every state....But that is not the source of the problem.  The country that holds the majority of manufacturing...... flat out proving he who fabricates, assembles, and sells holds the wealth and power.  If the government focused on how to get back manufacturing and because we still (for now are the buying power) could make it lucrative and attractive for "Made in America labels" to consist of designed, fabricated, and assembled for sale here vs making it more costly for those who import into this country.  It could spring back from it's deficits.  Common sense...the latest Ipod vs toothpaste and food that can feed my family ? Which do you choose? At the rate things are going I see fishing poles, hunting rifles in far more demand then the computer and software add ons because it's not reached the age of the Jetsons that can punch a dinner out of our computers.  Maybe I'm old school but I find it laughable to hear how people flock to stores for the latest techy toy, pay top dollar, then have to sit outside with a make shift aluminium antenna to make it work  because of the bugs in it. But hey I have the latest technology...that almost works...LOL   If we as a country are this ridiculous...maybe we're getting what we deserve for people to wake up as to what a surreal nation we've become.  Any wonder why politics doesn't have to change and we vote based on who can have a bigger smear campaign that sells?   

[JDsMom]

Read it today, State of Illinois is 6 BILLION dollars in debt