According to Firearm Chronicles
The Illinois Department of Corrections has finally come clean with a list of inmates released since March 1. The data should scare the hell out of Illinois residents. And plenty of other states have done the same.
While many of these Prairie State offenders had already been scheduled for “mandatory supervised release,” plenty more were released on the governor’s orders. Originally, Governor J.B. Pritzker told legislators that only “non-violent” offenders would be released for compassionate reasons related to the coronavirus.
The reality, however, has been something entirely different. The Center Square originally broke the story a couple of weeks ago.
An Illinois lawmaker and a county sheriff are raising fresh concerns about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to release inmates as the spread of COVID-19 continues in the state’s prisons, including questions about transparency.
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.