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Prison Reform Group Gets Three-Month Reprieve

Brian Mackey
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Brian Mackey / WUIS/Illinois Issues

At least one aspect of Governor Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda" is moving forward. A commission working on an overhaul of the state’s criminal justice laws has approved its first set of recommendations. IPR's Brian Mackey has more.

Rauner wants to cut Illinois’ prison population by 25 percent. His commission has agreed on more than a dozen recommendations. One asks the state to find an alternative to prison for felons with sentences of less than a year.  Rodger Heaton is a former U.S. attorney and chairman of the commission. He says prison is often not worth the cost, because short-timers can't get into treatment or education programs.

HEATON: The waitlist is such that they don't get anything in the Department of Corrections during that short stay other than to be kept safe, fed and clothed.

Commissioners were supposed to be done by the end of the year, but instead they're just releasing an initial report. They’ve been given another three months to work on more politically sensitive issues.

Brian Mackey formerly reported on state government and politics for NPR Illinois and a dozen other public radio stations across the state. Before that, he was A&E editor at The State Journal-Register and Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
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