Quinn To Drug Convicts: You May Be Busted, But The State Is Broke

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn attempted to bury a news item late Friday afternoon that 1,000 guests of the Illinois Department of Corrections would be let free early in a budgetary move.  Consisting mainly of drug and property offenders, “low level, non-violent” prisoners in the last year of their sentence would qualify for early release, and will be fitted with electronic monitoring devices.

Officials with the corrections agency and the Quinn administration declined to provide specifics after announcing the plan late this afternoon. Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said the bulk of those to be released and placed on supervised parole will be drug and property crime offenders. The move is estimated to save the agency about $5 million a year, Smith said, though Quinn is giving corrections an extra $2 million to monitor those who are released.

The release of prisoners is another symptom of the state’s dire fiscal situation, and is coupled with Quinn’s plan to layoff approximately 1,000 prison workers. The department will layoff 419 workers effective at month’s end.

Meanwhile, Quinn gave the department an extra $2 million to help divert offenders from state prisons. That money will go toward drug treatment and other community-based alternatives in an effort to reduce the number of people who receive short prison sentences. Prison officials say 47 percent of offenders released from custody each year serve six months or less behind bars.

Clout St: Quinn to release 1,000 inmates from prison in cost-cutting move.