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| IL Gov. Not Firing Over Prison Mistake |
| By chicagotribune.com |
| Published: 08/16/2010 |
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We keep wondering if the early-release debacle that freed 1,754 Illinois prisoners — some of them violent offenders — will cost a high-ranking state official his job in the administration of Gov. Pat Quinn. No, we're not talking about Department of Corrections Director Michael Randle or people in his agency who allegedly tried to undermine him. We're talking about Quinn himself, who has correctly acknowledged that the buck stops with him. This scandal has been nothing but bad news for the governor since it broke in December. His Democratic challenger, state Comptroller Dan Hynes, nearly rode it to victory in the Feb. 2 Illinois primary. And an autopsy of the scandal issued Friday — a report from former Judge David Erickson — probably threatens Quinn's prospects in the Nov. 2 general election as well. One of Quinn's initial responses in December was to ask Erickson to lead a committee review of early release in Illinois. The report issued Friday is Erickson's response. He said at a news conference that while early release can be a valuable corrections tool, Illinois' program had devolved into "a dismal failure" over three decades: Governors weren't on top of it, and some legislators kept urging more early releases. Erickson said the Quinn administration's accelerated 2009 program of granting early release, the so-called MGT Push, "took a broken system and made it worse." Read More. |
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