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| Ill. Corrections Department Head Resigns |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/17/2003 |
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The man appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to run the state Corrections Department resigned Friday amid allegations of brutality during his tenure as director of a county jail. Ernesto Velasco, 50, was head of the Cook County jail in 1999 when officers allegedly beat dozens of inmates following a gang-related stabbing and conspired to cover up the rampage. The allegations surfaced last month after Velasco was nominated to lead the Corrections Department. The nomination was then put on hold, but he has been filling the job in the interim. Velasco's resignation letter said he was stepping down so the scandal didn't engulf the state prison system and its mission. He has denied knowledge of the beatings. 'My deep and unyielding respect for the Department of Corrections and its vital mission requires that I resign so that the public issues surrounding my appointment do not overshadow the department's mandate,' Velasco wrote in his letter, which aides to the governor said was submitted voluntarily. Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Velasco's predecessor as department chief, Donald Snyder, would be named interim director. Snyder's own tenure was controversial. He was accused of spending abuses and fought with a state workers' association over prison closings and privatizations. Inmates claim that during the 1999 confrontation, officers ordered about 400 prisoners to strip and line up against walls, then beat them with batons for not moving fast enough or for looking away from the wall. |
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