Pubdate: Mon, 28 Sep 2009
Source: Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, IL)
Copyright: 2009 Daily Chronicle
Contact: http://www.daily-chronicle.com/forms/letters/
Website: http://www.daily-chronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3685

QUINN'S EMANCIPATION MORE RUSE THAN REFORM

Last spring, when Gov. Pat Quinn did not get the tax increased he'd
hoped for to help fill a gaping hole in the state budget, he warned
that one small path to help fill that gap could be the release of
thousands of inmates from Illinois prisons. Now, the governor is
making good on that promise, paving the way for 1,000 prisoners to be
released early this fall.

The plan calls for releasing non-violent offenders who are within one
year of their scheduled release date, and to assign them with
electronic monitoring devices, a parole officer and drug treatment or
other rehabilitative programs.

Quinn's office anticipates a savings of $5 million, and says the
changes are part of "modernizing and improving the state's
correctional system."

Reform that improves the system and lowers cost would indeed be
welcome. But no matter how Quinn tries to sell it, this action is
about money, not reform. Rather than a deliberative, fundamental
change of policy, it looks like a board game, with the state handing
out Get Out of Jail Free cards in exchange for a fast trip to Go, and
its quick influx of dough.

For years, prison reform advocates have been promoting the idea that
treatment, rather than incarceration, would be more effective and less
costly for thousands of drug users who crowd the jails, and who will
likely make up a large portion of those being released. Others argue
that early release is an insult to the judges who carefully select the
terms of punishment through thoughtful deliberation.

Incarceration is essential to law enforcement, yet it also comes at a
cost, and the price of punishment is a difficult societal balancing
act. Quinn's proposal satisfies neither those who hope for reform nor
those who advocate stiffer prison terms. It's a stop-gap measure to
help fill a budget hole, not a long-term solution.

The fear is not so much prisoners running amok, but politicians
ritually releasing prisoners whenever times get tough. Quinn's
autumnal emancipation lacks conviction, and is more ruse than reform.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake