How much is $174,000,000.00 in real money???
It almost triples the amount the state currently spends on reading improvement, per Illinois state Board of Education’s budget for 2009, , Reading Improvement $79,139,800. 00
It would increase the budget for “Youth Substance Abuse Prevention”, which targets children 9-14, the age most at risk. Before they are in trouble.
Think of what a small portion of this money could do for your community?
It is money the Illinois department of correction would save if they just implemented the current law.
Illinois statue (730 ILCS 5/) Unified Code of Corrections.
(730 ILCS 5/Ch. V Art. 8A heading)
ARTICLE 8A, ELECTRONIC HOME DETENTION, is the law, has been the law for over 10 years yet IDOC is not utilizing this law
This Illinois law calls for people convicted and sentenced to prison for
Non-violent crimes to be eligible for release on Electronic Home Monitoring
(EHM) devices, however officials of the Illinois department of Corrections
say that the technology is being used in very few [give number] cases. The
Reason is that the state is not currently equipped to monitor a large number
of people on EHM. [I expect a call back on this from Jason Garnett, IDOC Deputy Director for Parole Operations and Security-tp.]
The initial cost for ramping up this program would be negligible compared to the savings.
But they aren’t just numbers they are people like:
“Joanna” who has Alzheimer's and less than a year left on her sentence, her lucid days are getting further and further apart. Her family wants her home for at least whatever time she has remaining.
“Danielle” also has less than a year; she was with the wrong crowd, was the wrong color and listened to the wrong people. She did not have any past brushes with the law. She also has less than a year, but God has given her another sentence, she has MS.
“Johnny” is serving time for drunk driving, does not have a past record. He is the Father of a seven year old boy who is very ill, and wants nothing more than his father home. “Johnny” has less than eight months on his sentence. Hope his first event isn’t a funeral.
Ten plus years ago technology was not as advanced as it is today. Electronic Monitoring devices not only have GPS, but monitor drug intake even tobacco. They are smaller and cost less than $2.00 per day to implement. “Joanne”, “Danielle”, “Johnny” names aren’t real, but their stories are. They cost you and I anywhere between $30,000.00 and $150,000 per year.
What would you do with the money?
The Illinois Compiled Statutes declares that "a person serving a sentence
for conviction of a Class 2, 3, or 4 felony offense which is not an excluded
offense may be placed in an electronic home detention program pursuant to
Department administrative directives states “Excluded offenses are basically sex crimes and/or violent crimes against a person”.
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An excellent resource related to this subject is Church of the Second Chance by Jens Soering -- incarcerated since 1986 -- (Lantern Books 2008). The book explains how victims, offenders, and society at large can heal through the careful, considered and Christian application of the same key that freed Moses, David, and others to do great things after they broke the law. Each chapter begins with a fruitful Bible study, goes on to examine a crucial problem besetting our jails and penitentiaries, and ends with an interview that demonstrates how people are working today, in and out of prison, to apply God’s word to our own lives and times. It is used by the JustFaith Office in Louisville, KY for their program on prison reform.
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