Report: Early prisoner release not a scandal
Prisoners weren’t released earlier than normal PRISONS | Patrick Yeagle
Illinois’ early prisoner release controversy was no scandal, according to a recently-released report from Northwestern University School of Law, which claims stopping early release may have actually made the state less safe.
The report dated Oct. 28 claims that most news stories on early prisoner release have been false and the issue has wrongly turned into a scandal. Malcolm Young, director of the Program for Prison Reentry Strategies at the university’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, wrote the report, saying the controversy on the issue “resulted in ill-advised legislative and administrative decisions that may actually increase risks to public safety.”
“Contrary to media reports, MGT-Push has not been responsible for a single illegal or premature release of dangerous criminals or for the commission of additional violent crime,” Young writes. “MGT-Push did not cut prison sentences by months or years. It did not add to the public risk or endanger public safety. And it was not ‘secret.’ ” The issue came to light when the Associated Press published a story in December 2009 alleging that a supposedly secret early release program called MGT Push had released 850 prisoners earlier than normal under the direction of former Illinois Department of Corrections director Michael Randle. “MGT” is an acronym for “meritorious good time,” which describes credits of up to 180 days awarded by IDOC to prisoners for good behavior.
Young’s report says MGT Push was simply an alteration of the old MGT program, which had been in place since the 1970s. Randle, the former IDOC director who resigned on Sept. 2, simply did away with an IDOC practice of waiting until an inmate had served 60 days in prison to award the MGT credits, Young notes. Though many prisoners released under MGT Push had served only a few weeks or months in prison before their release, many had already served much more time in county jails while awaiting sentencing, Young says, meaning that prisoners who seemed to have been released early had actually served most of their sentences in county jails.
Vernell R. Robinson, a former inmate sentenced in Sangamon County and released under MGT Push, was sentenced to five years in prison on a narcotics conviction in 2007, and he served only 14 days in state prison before his release. However, he also served 817 days in the county jail before being transferred to prison, according to IDOC. Robinson’s time in the county jail counted toward his prison sentence, and the addition of MGT credits when he was transferred to prison met the legal requirement that he serve at least half of his sentence before being released.
The MGT Push program was meant to control IDOC’s costs by reducing the state prison population, which is already greater than the combined capacity of the state’s prisons. [See “Illinois Prisons: Standing room only,” March 4 at IllinoisTimes.com.] Since Quinn suspended MGT in December, the state’s prison population has risen from about 45,000 to about 48,000, according to IDOC. Stopping early release is further overcrowding state prisons and costing the state millions, Young says.
It also may result in a lower level of public safety, Young notes, because IDOC has no authority to supervise released prisoners who have served all of their prison time and are no longer on parole.
“The impact of the controversy over MGT- Push, the pressured decisions to end MGT- Push and to suspend MGT on Illinois’ prison population can already be seen,” Young says, pointing to the increased prison population. “Illinois has become a textbook example of what can happen when politics overrides sound policy and facts yield to hyperbole in criminal justice decision-making.”
To read the full report, visit www.tinyurl.com/24a5l8j
Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].
