Pubdate: Fri, 19 Apr 2002
Source: Daily Vidette (IL Edu)
Copyright: 2002 Daily Vidette
Contact:  http://www.its.ilstu.edu/vidette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/666
Author: Brian Hillmer

RYAN FREES NON-VIOLENT DRUG OFFENDERS TO AVOID DEFICIT

In the interest of saving money to counter an imposing budget deficit, Gov. 
George Ryan wants to grant early release to 4,500 convicted criminals from 
the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Prisoners eligible for Ryan's proposed release would be non-violent drug 
offenders with up to seven months remaining in their sentence.

The IDOC is also looking at closing incarceration facilities to reduce 
spending. The Vienna Correctional Center and the Valley View Illinois Youth 
Center are slated for closure May 15, Sergio Molina, chief of the office of 
communications and public service for IDOC, said. The IDOC is also 
considering closing 16 other facilities.

The suggestion comes after low state revenue and $1 billion-plus state deficit.

Karen Fincutter, spokeswoman for Ryan, said, "Ryan is looking for the 
measures under his control to implement to solve the budget crisis. The 
governor is looking for creative solutions on how we can fix the budget 
problem."

According to Fincutter, Ryan is "certainly willing to accept suggestion 
from the state legislature and AFSCME on how to fix the budget problem."

Robert Bradley, politics and government professor , said early releases of 
this type are not all that uncommon.

Bradley compared Ryan's suggestion to a situation that happened in Chicago 
a short while ago. A federal court deemed correctional facilities 
unconstitutional in their operations and, instead of spending the money to 
bring the facilities up to standard, prisoners with non-violent and violent 
histories were released back into the community.

This happens in other states as well, he added.

According to Molina, these offenders are usually incarcerated for less than 
a year, typically seven months.

Thomas Ellsworth, Criminal Justice Sciences department chairman, said 
Ryan's proposal is more of an attempt to make the public aware of the 
seriousness of the budget shortfall by making people feel very uneasy and 
making them feel their streets will no longer be safe.

Bradley said the public would get more interested in the issue if Ryan was 
releasing violent inmates because of budget problems.

"These people [potential early release inmates] are near the end of their 
sentence and it [releasing them] was determined to be another prudent 
measure to reduce the operating expenses of the IDOC," Fincutter said.

According to Ellsworth, the Department of Corrections' major expense is 
maintaining people in custody, which runs $20,000 per adult per year and 
$30,000 per juvenile per year.

Money spent on incarcerating non-violent offenders could be spent on other 
programs, Ellsworth said.

Over the last 25 years, the number of inmates has quadrupled, much of that 
increase consisting of non-violent drug offenders, he added.

According to Molina, about 25 percent of all inmates are drug offenders and 
there are approximately 4,500 non-violent drug offenders in the 
correctional system at any given time.

In a given year the IDOC gets 8,000 to 9,000 class four felony offenders, 
who are typically non-violent drug offenders, he added.

"Taxpayers are somewhat fed up with the exorbitant expenses that connect 
with locking people up for short periods of time without opportunity for 
treatment or rehabilitation and then coming out worse than they [criminals] 
were when they went in," Ellsworth said.

The fact of the matter is the majority of these people are typically 
non-violent offenders and can probably be easily assimilated back into the 
community, he said.

According to Molina, an IDOC director went on record to suggest the state 
investigate alternatives to incarceration for non-violent drug offenders in 
general. [waiting.]

"The public generally views them [drug offenders] as not hostile, not 
combative, not aggressive, not assaultive, not dangerous," Ellsworth said.

Many of these drug offenses are crimes of circumstance, he added.

The current views on incarceration are following a 30-year cycle, he said. 
The cycle of public opinion moves between stringent and more relaxed law 
enforcement policies.

Ryan's early release proposal could lead the way to establishing a position 
with discretionary authority to release inmates when they are most ready to 
be, not when the statue says they must be released, he said.

"What has really clogged up the system in the last 24 to 25 years is the 
statutory requirement that a percentage of the sentence must be served 
before release," Ellsworth said.

Fincutter said Ryan's proposal would not set future precedence for lighter 
sentencing of drug offenders. Ellsworth said he does not think this program 
will actually be implemented.

"No decisions have been made. This is strictly an option," Molina said.

According to Bradley, the IDOC measures are being used as a "poker-chip."

Ryan is offering the closures and early releases as a bargaining chip to 
force the state legislature to think more comprehensively and innovatively 
about the budget, he said. "This is part of an ongoing bargaining process 
where you make, in a way, a threat, and then the legislature responds to 
thatSIt's give and take. It's back and forth."

This bargaining has really slowed the budgetary process, Bradley said, 
adding, "ISU would desperately like to find out what their upcoming budgets 
are going to be."
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MAP posted-by: Beth