Illinois logan prison
Security fences surround the Logan Correctional Center Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, in Lincoln, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
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Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzer has not let the Chinese virus crisis go to waste when it comes to lowering the headcount in the Land o’ Lincoln’s prisons. As other states have, Pritzker’s administration told law enforcement officials that they intended to quietly release non-violent offenders because of COVID-19.

The governor didn’t publish any lists or supporting documentation on those who were set free, supposedly for medically compassionate reasons.

However, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey says that he found a document on the Illinois Department of Corrections website listing 761 inmates that have been released early because of COVID-19 concerns – as well as information on the crimes they’ve committed.

The Center Square has the story of the 761 inmates and their “get out of jail free” cards that the mainstream media seem so reluctant to report.

Illinois Department of Corrections officials confirmed the release of some inmates on a list released by State Rep. John Cabello. However, officials said the list included people who were released for reasons unrelated to the governor’s executive order and the transmission of COVID-19.

The spreadsheet, titled “COVID FINAL list of early exits” listed the names of 761 inmates. The charges included murder, forcible sexual assault, armed robbery, making heroin, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated vehicular hijacking of a handicapped person and other violent crimes. Several of the people, including those convicted of murder, were directly commuted by Pritzker, according to the document.

The data was provided by Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey, who said his office found it on the Illinois Department of Corrections website after an exhaustive search. Subsequent searches turned up no such document.

Someone at IDOC figured out — a little late — that it might be a good idea to take down that document to prevent further embarrassment of the governor. Pritzker also moved to outright commute the sentences of 17 other prisoners in recent days, including seven murderers.

“I don’t disagree with those that say there are those within our prison system that should probably be released,” Downey said. “We were told that these were going to be nonviolent. When you’re talking about armed robberies, murders, criminal sexual assaults, those individuals should not get released early based on the possibility that they could contract COVID.”

State Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, released specific data showing some of the names and offenses that were directly commuted by Pritzker, including Brian Harrington, who was convicted of murder in the 2007 slaying of Brad Berogan in Winnebago County. According to the released document, Harrington will turn 28 in July.

“If any of these folks re-offend and hurt somebody else, I will hold J.B. Pritzker personally responsible and I will make it my mission in life to ensure that the family members know that it was J.B. Pritzker that caused them this harm as well,” Cabello said.

Unfortunately, you can’t hold him personally financially responsible.

Get Out Of Jail Free
Bigstock

But state Democrats want to free still more criminals.

Meanwhile, members of Pritzker’s own party are pressuring him to release more non-violent offenders at a higher pace.

“Non-violent.” What could possibly go wrong with releasing more convicts into society?

Sarcasm aside, most of these people probably belong behind bars, not on our streets.  And if you needed (yet) another reason to carry every day, even at home, this should provide 778 of them.

Illinois is but one of the 57 states. Is your governor doing the same?

 

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96 COMMENTS

  1. Governor J.B. Pritzer: the governor proves even “…the compassion of wicked people is nothing but cruelty”.

  2. I don’t have a problem with the state letting out anyone over 80yrs old, especially if they’re handicapped or sick. They won’t be able to attack anyone on the street. Less expense for the taxpayer.
    The jail was a perfect place to do a quarantine experiment. They blew it.

    • Good point on the elderly. Why not just let out the most vulnerable? Plus, statistics say most violent crime is committed by men under 35. The self-declared Party of Science isn’t interested in logic and data, only ideology.

      • Because now it’s reported by mainstream media that covid-19 is a racist virus. Disproportionately affecting the black community. Surely, all African Americans should be freed so they are not subject the the white man disease.

        /eye roll

    • I was the warden of a 2.500 inmate correctional facility during the H1N1 flu epedemic which came from Mexico. 98% of my facility were Mexican nationals here illegally. We cleared out a housing unit and as someone became sick they were quarantined. We kept the rest of the facility open to normal operations. We had less than 30 cases and all recovered. Letting any inmate out because of this virus is BS.

      • The people who Pritzker let out should be kept in prison so they COULD get COVID-19. In my opinion. At least the people who were there because of a violent crime.

      • This is a scam to reduce the state prison budget. The governor has armed police to protect her so why should she care about risk? Also if the old criminals get sick outside of prison it is not on the state jail budget either.

    • I will be 86 shortly and would be capable of nearly as much mayhem as a 40 year old if I had a criminal mind. Elderly does not mean incapable of causing great harm. No! Do not release ANY criminal for such spurious reasons. Such scofflaws are more likely to be spreaders of disease than practice distancing. A section of the prison can be used for containment/isolation of any who may contract the virus (which would have been brought in from the outside).

    • And now they’re all going to be wearing face masks. Good thinkin’! Can’t wait to start seeing the videos of armed robbers showing up at gas stations and grocery stores wearing obligatory white masks. At least the thugs will be safe from the corona virus.

    • Just yesterday the Rockford police captured a couple of violent offenders from a prison in Wisconsin who showed up at a local homeless shelter and the shelter notified the police they were there.

  3. The majority of the good citizens of Illinois voted for this buffoon so they deserve exactly what they get. My regrets to those who didn’t. I can only hope that the vast majority of these convicts victims will be Democrats.

    • I’m hoping some of them are right-wing republicans! We’re armed. Might save the taxpayers some time & money.

    • “The majority of the good citizens of Illinois voted for this buffoon…”

      No. Chicago and the collar counties voted for this buffoon.

      Pretty much the rest of the state can’t stand him. And he rules like this as well.

    • I didn’t or never Have voted for a Leftist Democrat in Illinois !! Never will . They Only Got the job For the MONEY – could care less about the public – Proof = Let more Convicts out ! And just yesterday 4-16-2020– Portage Wisc. Two Convicts got Loose – ended up south in il. Rockton / Roscoe Area – !!!! And yet the Governors of Demo Run States want to disarm us ?!! wth? Really Pritzker ? You Have ARMED SECURITY — WHILE Most Illinois Residents Are UNARMED !!! And you LET CONVICTS OUT !????? Lets make a Deal Governor = Give All Illinois Citizens CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY RIGHTS = You can let loose as many CONVICTS AS YOU PLEASE!! We can take care of Ourselves!!! thank you very much!!!!!

        • I think it should go back to the days of lynching pigs like this governor. We have become so civilized that unfortunately we don’t want to think this way. How many others out there feel this way and are scared to speak out. Until a majority of us start realizing they are Benedict Arnolds and we know what happened to that man. We are the power not these garbage governors that are showing their true stripes.

    • I didn’t vote for Pritzker. The one I wanted got primaried out . Jeanne Ives is her name. If people had had any brains, she would have been elected governor. She is running for Congress this year.🙏

  4. Personally, I am wondering if/when we will get to a tipping point where people get desperate and violent crime explodes.

    • It’s never *far* off. We’re the top species on this planet for a number of reasons but “warm and cuddly” ain’t on that list. The veneer of culture, society and civilization are paper thin.

      It’s hilarious to me that in some regards the supposedly “coldly scientific” Left shacks up with the Religious Right on the issue of whether or not we’re subject to the rules of nature. Both seem to come down on the side of saying that we’re somehow “different” from “animals”. How they arrive at that conclusion is irrelevant to both the error of the conclusion and its consequences.

      We’re a intelligent, violent, territorial, tribal, bipedal and predatory semiarboreal ape species. Highly adaptable and resilient, no doubt, but still just animals with a big brain. No amount of sciency sounding jargon or religious prattle is going to change that. The quicker we accept this, the better IMHO.

        • Tool building is just an artifact of that large brain.

          It’s starting to be seen in other apes and monkeys at this point. They’ve learned it from us. We made the jump into novelty thanks to extra neural connections.

        • Past human(s) barely lived to 30

          Past human(s)regularly died from infections from simple cuts

          Past human(s) had to watch infants die with regularly after birth along with their mothers

          The past is overrated and overly romanticized

        • “Past human(s) barely lived to 30”

          A gross oversimplification that’s demonstrably untrue. Someone in the ancient world who lived to the age of 10 and survived military service (if any) had no reason not to expect to live to 60 or even longer. Life expectancy for a five year old male at the tail end of the Roman Republic was 39, an average age of 46, and that’s with military service factored in. If you reached 30, having survived military service or childbirth, depending on your sex, you could expect an average of another 24-26 years etc etc. 70 year olds were actually fairly common in ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome.

          In fact, this is exactly why “dat patriarchy” is even a thing for idiots to blather about, specifically because people DID grow old and require their children/grandchildren to take care of them. It was common enough that society in the Western World is fundamentally organized around the concept.

          Shit, in ancient Athens during the democratic years you couldn’t even vote until you were 30.

          Further, ancient medical practices were surprisingly advanced, even Homer talked of this in the Iliad which existed in spoken form before it was written down sometime in the 8th Century BC. By 500BC the Greeks understood how to remove arrowheads, even those in the chest, and save the victim in many cases as well as that preventing blood loss and shock were important for a long time. By around 300BC Herophilos had done enough anatomy research to have discovered the nervous system and differentiated between sensory and motor nerves.

          By 200BC the Romans understood how to save people from even more serious battlefield injuries with what we would consider basic surgery and understood the importance (though not the reason why) of sterilization of surgical tools and had created hospitals for people to recover in where actual supportive care was given rather than leaving it to the gods.

          A hell of a lot of what people tend to think about the shitty nature of ancient life is simply myth. The concept that people regularly dropped dead from a minor cut is simply ridiculous. If our species was that fragile we’d have never made it out of the jungle.

      • Not sure who you’re calling the religious right but the reason we have this mess all over in This world was the devil was let free to try to “take it over” in the 1880s Luxur came to us – factories took dad out of the home – unions were needed for fairness – mafia took over etc
        Luxuries abound yet and they are our god with no time for God anymore DO YOU TALK TO GOD AND ASK FOR HELP AND FORGIVENESS?!
        Most don’t and there’s your problem. yOU!

    • People in Michigan and other places are already to the fed up point with their governments. And are staging major protests.👍

  5. Anyone of authority (governors, mayors, & especially parole boards) who release’s a convicted killer that reoffend’s SHOULD be held accountable for that release, just cause you work for the government doesn’t mean you should be shielded from lawsuits because you made a major mistake.

  6. Break Quarantine go to jail, but if you’re in jail get out…what am I missing here…I guess Dems will be Dems…

  7. Yes, it is unconscionable with the politician releases violent criminals. Sometimes they think they have a good reason like a pandemic.

    Other times not so much:

    “When the Louisville Courier-Journal revealed earlier this month that former Kentucky governor Matt Bevin (R) had pardoned a slew of violent criminals during his final weeks in office, he cited his belief in second chances.
    But on Thursday, Bevin offered a different explanation for one particularly controversial pardon: He said he didn’t believe that a 9-year-old girl was raped, because her hymen was intact.”

    And under Bevins’ policies, if the nine-year-old had become pregnant from the sexual assault, she would be forced to bear her rapist’s child risking injury and death from such an early childbirth.

    • Or, more likely, it was another one of those “rapes” that didn’t happen. But hey, I find it interesting that you chicom bio-terrorist apologists see nothing wrong with executing unborn children.

    • Another example of no “pivot” too extreme (especially when the claim is NOT supported by FACTS), just to change the topic to “bad Republican leaders”.
      Good job 49er, you be you.

    • “Yeahbut, Yeahbut look over there!” (I know it isn’t really one word)

      What’s the common excuse among democrats for bad behavior in the past few years? “Yeahbut Trump!!”

      Pointing out bad behavior from others isn’t a valid defense.

      “Sure Judge, I physically and sexually assaulted that person, but I heard the guy down the road raped someone!”

  8. how early they were released would be a thing.
    months, enh. years… way too soon.
    doesn’t sound like this batch were waiting for decisions; they were convicted, some violent, actors.
    released due to flu concerns? i doubt if it’s rare for inmates to catch the flu. maybe they’re safer while institutionalized.
    does pritzker the one man mass gathering like foxx’s hummers that much?

  9. As long as Prickster has an armed detail. Meanwhile we are an armed camp here in southern Cook County,ILL. Surprisingly quiet…so far! Oh and dumbazz comments of ” you voted for dims” makes me not give a dam about places like Virginia. Show up and vote hillbillies! Coming to your state SOON😩

  10. Let’s be fair the Governor declared gun stores essential. Maybe he is hoping the public will solve the recidivism problem.

    • get rid of law enforcement and it would. crooks see law abiding citizens, make that people whom fear being incarcerated, as easy marks.

  11. So I’m guessin all those empty cells will be filled with folks owning newly illegal firearms, people defending themselves from these poor unfortunates being released, oh, and the people daring to go to church!

  12. This is a 3 or 4 part master plan to ‘Re-work’ the American criminal just system from the bottom up(local,city,state), and out-side the box.
    1. Pushing Blue State laws and Dem Judges to end to cash bail. Four states—Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin—have completely banned commercial bail bonding. Why? It’s racist…
    2. not prosecuting public urination and other ‘quality-of-life crimes’ , including theft of up to $1,000 in property or merchandise. Why? It’s racist…
    3. Way before The CCP Virus, the 2.2 million people in prison, mass incarceration was considered the greatest moral and racial injustice of our time. Why? It’s racist…
    Releasing these inmates has been a recent goal of Both parties, the George Soros DA’s across the nation.
    4. Granting Felons the Right to Vote again along with the 11- 22 or by some estimates up to 40 million illegal aliens living in our country.
    Remember SUPREME COURT RULING: Police Have No Duty To Protect The Public.

    So think about these unvoted for changes, while you watch most Americans lose their jobs and become more and more desperate to even feed themselves.

      • Oh shit dude, gotta have bail. Not every arrest is the death penalty. What if the guy is innocent awaiting trial. Locked up he loses his job and how’s he to pay his lawyer.

        • When you don’t like people being innocent until proven guilty you make the punishment waiting for the trial.

          Just add in pretrial torture and execution and you’ve got Third World shithole legalism at it’s finest.

  13. Remember what happened when the Soviets released Mongolian prisoners on the German civilians following the big 1940s war.

  14. That’s nothing. Here in Texas, somehow, some people who are obviously either Nazi war criminals or former hall monitors with PTSD have been hired to monitor “social distancing” at the grocery store.

  15. Might one pose the following question:

    What is the governor’s position on the acquisition, possession and use of arms by that group of people generally known as Law Abiding Citizens?

  16. ““If any of these folks re-offend and hurt somebody else, I will hold J.B. Pritzker personally responsible…”

    Good luck with that!

  17. Anarcho-tyranny is the best description of the system we live under.
    How do you think the law will treat you when you shoot one of these now freed felons?

    Anarchy for them, tyranny for you.

      • CPD are in a mess. Some of their supervisors are trying to enact all sorts of Orwellian orders right now and the cops are actually going to the press to try and cause outrage and stop them. Then you have the hard-chargers who want to wear jeans to work (i.e. tactical teams etc) going and locking people up for nothing (congregating on corners) and then dropping their detainees on patrol to deal with, all while the courts and jails don’t want anyone arrested at all. And of course no one has sufficient PPE and cops are dropping sick left and right- 3 have died.

        Luckily the past few years have taught smart Chicago residents who can’t leave that they should be armed.

  18. Murderers Rapist and Robbers, oh my. . You and your little dog too. Actually the Murderers , Rapist and Robbers are more afraid of Us now that johnny law ain’t here to protect them.

  19. In the 1970s President Jimmy Carter accepted all those Cuban refugees. A future president would latter say ” they’re not sending their best people. They’re rapists, their criminals and some of them are good people”. The murder rate exploded in Florida. The Crime rates were off the chart. A few years later Florida would pass a law relaxing its concealed carry requirements for all law-abiding citizens.

    It’s only a matter of time until the crime rates explode in parts of the country where the Democrats have emptied their Jail’s.

    It is the natural Order of Things. You flood the society with predators. They will be looking for prey.

  20. “But state Democrats want to free still more criminals.

    Meanwhile, members of Pritzker’s own party are pressuring him to release more non-violent offenders at a higher pace.”

    Non-Violent they say?

  21. Jamshine Gayle have found the perfect job as a full time student, it has changed my life around! If you are self motivated and social media savvy then this is ideal for you. The sky is the limit, you get exactly how much work you put into to it. Click on this link to get started and see for yourself,….9.ly/a71LB

  22. The first inmate they let out in “OHIO” already committed a “CRIME”! The Second Day He Was FREED! What a Friggin “BAD IDEA”. No, no, no. What you do is the same as any other town or city. YOU SET-UP A SICK CENTER. You isolate the infected. And give them every opportunity to recover as anyone on the outside. BUT> YOU “NEVER EVER” Just Set Them FREE? (FYI- I had heard they were only letting out individuals that had a Year or Less to Serve? AND Non-Violent Offender’s?) … We Know the “CRIMINALS” ALWAYS HAVE WEAPONS! … When you Make STRICT GUN LAWS … You are not taking them away from the CRIMINALS??? … YOU ARE TAKING THEM AWAY FROM “LAW ABIDING CITIZEN’S” … What the hell is wrong with folks? Where’s your God Given COMMON SENSE???

  23. It’s happening in Florida too. One of the “winners” released from jail was pick back up for murder the very next day. Oh and also more heroin, the thing that he was in for in the first place. I’m left to wonder- are our “leaders” this colossally stupid, or is this intentional? Do they want the world to burn? I’d rather entire jail populations were wiped out with covid19 than anyone on the outside be hurt by them.

    As noted elsewhere, it was an opportunity for scientific testing. In a secure setting, an isolated population could only be infected by visitors, employees, and guards. But given there’s almost nothing that can’t be smuggled into prisons, who knows?

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-inmate-freed-over-coronavirus-concerns-linked-to-murder-1-day-after-release-authorities

    This is why home carry.

  24. I’m doing OK except for the mental discomfort when I remember what horrible choices we will have next Nov. Trump is a crackpot bully whose best quality is being obnoxious. Biden is semi-senile and attempting to buy votes by selling off my liberty to own guns. Come November the best thing I can do is cast a write-in vote for Dead Skunk.

    JBS

    • You need a lesson In The good Trump has done for your country. It’s his country too and wants it free of communists who are trying to take it over – in the name of democrats. There is no other country to go to that hasn’t been infiltrated by the devils workers. It’s all about God and the devil also and the Blessed Mother.-the mother of Jesus who was God Read the book of Revelation. !

  25. These criminals are the very reason we have CCW…..and I do NOT care what happens to any of them…..they forfeited any compassion or regard from me when they committed violent crimes, so NO, they should remain in jail!! The only ones I give a damn about are the Corrections personnel!!

  26. Sadly he is governing from the area that elected him. He is a governor of his people so let them keep him Separate down state Illinois now! If we have learned nothing else from this that should be crystal clear.

  27. I would care less if I read in the paper that Gov. Pritzker caught the coronavirus with a terminal result. Same for Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, AOC, Tlaib, Omar, Pressley, etc.

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