"We cannot forget that people who might be incarcerated are still human beings and they are still people deserving basic human dignity and respect," said State Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago). The rate of deaths slowed tremendously after IDOC started universal testing and voluntary vaccinations of staff and inmates. Also, early release substantially accelerated the amount of crime suffered by the public, but contributed to less than 1 percent of all crimes reported in Illinois. His wife, Susan Hertzberg, 78, still in prison, is trying to get a compassionate early release due to her age, health problems and the virus. More than 1,000 medically vulnerable or elderly inmates in Illinois prisons are set to be released following a settlement agreement in a lawsuit brought last spring against the head of the Illinois Department of Corrections and Gov. Press Release - Tuesday, February 21, 2023 Photos: Northwestern loses to Penn State 68-65 in overtime, Nick Niego is back as Brother Rice stuns St. Rita. The Illinois Department of Corrections will identify medically vulnerable and elderly prisoners eligible for early release or electronic home monitoring. UPLC is tracking COVID-19 cases in IDOC. The Senate passed a bill that could allow terminally ill prisoners to be freed more quickly by the Prisoner Review Board. Inmates with at least nine months of their sentence remaining who are considered low-risk will recei. Like other Chicagoans, we have ideas about what the next mayor should do. About one-third of Dixons staff was out recently due to sickness, union officials said, and at least 10 inmates, including Watson Gray, have died there since November. Advocates for prisoners rights say the states delays in broadening staff testing, releasing thousands of medically vulnerable or other nonviolent prisoners and better enforcing a staff mask mandate have led to widespread infections and more deaths. At the county level, judges, prosecutors, and public defenders are working together to release low-risk pretrial detainees and inmates serving sentences for nonviolent offenses. In emailed responses to Tribune questions, Ryburn said he was not tested after Bourbon died but he did not get sick. He said he continues to bathe using the sink in his cell rather than risk infection by sharing a shower room with others. She cared about people a whole lot, said her husband. Prisons and their surrounding communities would be safer. To donate to our work fighting the spread of coronavirus in Illinois' prisons, click here. The Illinois legislature has provided IDOC with significant discretion to release people, and it should continue to do so, Bedi said. Newsletter, Paddock Publications, Inc. is an Employee-Owned Company. The releases follow an April 20 directive from Gov. But theres no mechanism in Illinois to permit us to do that, said the bills sponsor, state Sen. John Connor, D-Lockport. Sadly, rather than engaging with the governor, AFSCME, the guards' union, immediately announced that it was opposed to any requirement that staff be vaccinated. So far, three incarcerated men in Illinois two who had been housed at Stateville prison in Crest Hill and a detainee at the Cook County Jail have died from complications related to the coronavirus. Many inmates, relatives and recently freed men interviewed by the Tribune agreed that access to masks and cleaning supplies has improved since earlier this year, when there was a national shortage. In a November interview, she told the Tribune that he used to phone her once a week from Stateville and that, during one call, she noticed he could barely speak. A bill that would create an elected school board in Chicago advanced out of a Senate committee Wednesday on an 11 to 6 vote, clearing the way for that legislation to pass through the full chamber. New questions were being raised Tuesday night about how many inmates have actually been released from state prisons because of the COVID-19 crisis, and An amended lawsuit filed against Rob Jeffreys, director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and Gov. State Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, left, talks with state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, during a session of the Illinois House of Representatives at the Bank of Springfield Center last year. It remains to be seen if the law does anything. A man incarcerated at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill is among eight new deaths from the Coronavirus in Illinois, and 18 other inmates were taken to AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, officials said. Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum security state prison for men in Crest Hill, on March 30, 2020. A new point of contention is where prisoners will be on the vaccine distribution list. At about 100 pounds and in poor health, 78-year-old Susan Hertzberg hardly poses a threat to public safety, her lawyer said. Currently, 57 inmates and 90 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, the records show. COVID-19 continues to have a devastating effect on one of Chicagos most vulnerable congregate populations: jail and prison detainees. Antholt said the settlement also ensures the Department of Corrections is providing training to all the relevant facilities' staff about how to accommodate the needs of vulnerable prisoners. Chaney, who was granted a sentence commutation by Gov. "This bill creates policy that honors people's humanity while at the same time prioritizing public safety," said Lt. According to the settlement, the Corrections Department will continue to identify and evaluate medically vulnerable prisoners for release even after the pandemic. She described a frantic several days just calling everybody at the prison, back and forth, in circles, basically. Relatives also called a nearby hospital, she said, but inmates at the hospital are listed as John Does, which added to the initial confusion. ICJIAs Research Hub is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Angelo Ciaravino and Richard Zoller both have a way of getting their Mount Carmel teammates and the crowd fired up. On January 13th, state legislators approved a colossal 764-page police and criminal justice reform bill that includes major changes, such as ending the practice of cash bail and money bonds, requiring all officers across Illinois to wear body cameras, and easing restrictions placed on those convicted of lesser charges. I'm sorry we couldn't afford this mercy to Joe Coleman, but I'm proud that we'll be able to do so for hundreds of other Illinoisans now that this bill is signed into law. Worldwide there are 11m behind bars, according to Penal Reform International, a pressure group. Vaccinating prisoners is good public policy. << /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 1028 >> The pandemic hit Illinois prison system hard last spring, with cases mushrooming and fatalities reported at more than a dozen facilities before cases leveled off late in the year. People incarcerated in jails and prisons will be prioritized for vaccines along with people who are 65 and older, certain essential workers and people experiencing homelessness or residing in shelters, according to the plan released Dec. 31 by the state health department. Terminally ill incarcerated people would only be eligible if they have family able to care for them and are expected to die within 18 months, OConnor said, adding the new measure would be used when being imprisoned doesnt make a difference anymore., But state Sen. Terri Bryant pointed to cases in the states Department of Corrections where physicians said someone would imminently die over and over and over again.. The full press release and letter to Governor Pritzker areavailable here! ILLINOIS HAS JUST CONVERTED FROM AN INDETERMINATE TO A DETERMINATE SENTENCING SYSTEM. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune), Lester Mason was released from Pontiac Correctional Center on Nov. 25 after spending 39 years in prison for armed robbery, his third such offense. The legislation was named after Joe Coleman, a father, decorated veteran, and active member in his community who had terminal cancer. And I'm proud to turn it into law today.". A 58-year-old cancer survivor who had been in custody since he was a teenager, Scott died in April. She said her retired parents were struggling financially when they committed the crime. He tested positive for COVID-19 around Labor Day. Pritzker could slow the spread of COVID-19 at Cook County Jail, Prisons worldwide risk becoming incubators of covid-19, Pritzker criticized over quiet commutations, not releasing medically vulnerable, Request for broad prisoner release untenable on class-wide basis, Ill. Judge Won't Expedite Prisoners' Release Amid COVID-19, Federal judge declines to step in and order Illinois to release more inmates in the face of COVID-19 threat, PRISONERS IN ILLINOIS DESCRIBE DIRE CONDITIONS AMID CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK, Pritzker Signs Executive Order Allowing Prisoner Furloughs, Pritzker Signs Executive Order Allowing Medical Furlough for IDOC Inmates, Activists Fight to Prevent Virus Spread in Prison Petri Dishes, As COVID-19 Spreads, Advocates Sound Alarm For People In Prisons And The Communities Around Them, As COVID-19 Spreads, Advocates Sound Alarm For People in Prisons And The Communities Around Them, Stateville prison outbreak signals COVID-19 threat to inmates, surrounding hospital systems, Illinois prisons and rural healthcare systems facing crisis due to slow COVID-19 response, Pritzker named in suit to free prisoners at risk of COVID-19, Civil Rights Attorneys Launch Legal Challenge to Free Prisoners At Risk of Coronavirus, 1st Illinois prison inmate dies of COVID-19, health officials say, Group Calls On State To Release Inmates After COVID-19 Death At Stateville Prison, Stateville inmates with Coronavirus taken to Saint Joseph Medical Center, Alarm grows as Cook County, state struggle with what to do with the incarcerated in the face of COVID-19, Illinois inmate dies from COVID-19; dozens more sickened, Jails and prisons could become coronavirus disaster. Bronis said he recovered but continues to have headaches and breathing difficulties. Lets walk through 4 main ways to get early release from prison, under the First Step Act, for an inmate to obtain early release or additional community custody Jan. 13, 2022 WASHINGTON Thousands of federal inmates will become eligible for release this week under a rule the Justice Department published on Thursday A spokesperson for Pritzker was not immediately available for comment. His wife, Susan Hertzberg, 78, still in prison, is trying to get a compassionate early release due to her age, health problems and the virus. In April, CDCR expedited the release of almost 3,500 incarcerated persons serving a sentence People In Jails, Prisons Will Be Vaccinated In Next Phase, State Confirms After Advocates Push, Jail, Prison Populations Must be Among First to Get COVID-19 Vaccine: Advocacy Groups, COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging again in Illinois prisons, as inmates and advocates call for more action, Prioritizing Vaccines for Prisoners is Good Public Policy, Illinois to expand testing of prison workers as inmate deaths, infections surge, Forgotten: Stateville inmates warn of rising COVID-19 outbreak behind bars, Lawsuit: Illinois Prisons Are Failing To Protect Inmates From COVID-19, Lawsuit: Pritzker, IDOC Failed to Protect Vulnerable Inmates from COVID-19. Denice Bronis said her son, Matthew Echevarria, tested positive around Labor Day at Menard Correctional Center. Similar to what happened in the outside world, the pandemic seemed under control in Illinois prisons most of the summer. Camren Wynter hit a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to give Penn State a 68-65 victory against Northwestern. On April 22, 2020, Chicago area civil rights groups came together to write a letter of support for the actions of Illinois Governor Pritzker. The lawsuit was one of two filed in the early days of the pandemic alleging that Gov. That tragedy was preventable.. An Illinois lawmaker and a county sheriff are raising fresh concerns about Gov. SPRINGFIELD The right of Illinois workers to organize and to bargain collectively could soon be codified into the states constitution, and the terminally ill could soon secure early release from prison more quickly under measures that passed through the General Assembly Wednesday. She said prison officials did not notify her or Wilsons wife that he was hospitalized until the family made repeated phone calls. McDonald questions whether her son received prompt medical attention. A lock ( But in denying emergency relief last year, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow said there was no convincing reason for a federal court to intrude on the effort by other stakeholders to contain the problem. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune). This is another step toward the world, the Illinois, our families deserve. She said that while the number of prisoners who will be released was significant, there are thousands more who have a legal mechanism to seek release and should get it. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. "Illinois continues to lead the Nation in sensible criminal justice reform with Governor Pritzker's approval today of the Joel Coleman Act," said Craig Findley, Chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (PRB). WebActions to Reduce Population and Maximize Space. Watson Gray, 73, died of complications related to COVID-19 on Nov. 6, 2020, at Dixon Correctional Center. Groups that track national virus data for state and federal prisons, such as the COVID Prison Project and The Marshall Project, place Illinois about average on lists comparing infections based on inmate populations, but Illinois has one of the higher death tolls. March 23, 2021. The standoff between Chicago police and Mayor Lori Lightfoot over the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate once again hoisted Chicago onto the national stage, seemingly pitting the individual rights of law enforcement officers against the health of communities theyre charged with protecting. THE BOARD MAINTAINS RECORDS OF THE OUTCOME OF EACH DECISION, CARD FILES CONTAINING THE PAROLE HISTORY OF EACH PAROLEE, AND LEGAL PAPERS PERTINENT TO DECISIONS. The bill provides reasonable timeframes and deadlines for the Prisoner Review Board to review cases involving medical incapacity or terminal illness, and to determine if those inmates with victim input would basically have a quality-of-life improvement if theyre moved out of prison, Connor said. Lester Mason, 76, at the home of his nephew in East Peoria on Dec. 14, 2020. At a Georgia state House of Representatives hearing on prison conditions in September, a corrections officer called in to testify, interrupting his shift to tell lawmakers how dire conditions had become. Under the settlement, the Department of Corrections agreed to "identify and evaluate medically vulnerable prisoners for release through legally available mechanisms." As of Monday, more than 10,800 state inmates and 4,200 staff members had tested positive for the virus, according to IDOC statistics posted online. 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