Why Support Earned Release?
In 1978, Illinois abolished parole. Today, people who are convicted of felony offenses and sentenced to prison terms have no hope of earned release from prison. Even if they rehabilitate themselves, are no longer a threat to public safety and are costing the state millions of dollars for continued incarceration, Illinois still does not provide them with a mechanism for earning back their freedom.
Most people believe that parole still exists in Illinois. That is not the case[1]. Parole, as most people think of it, means "discretionary parole," where a prisoner comes before a parole board and the members of the board determine whether the prisoner has rehabilitated him or herself and whether releasing the prisoner would cause a threat to public safety. Other than for the 300 aging C# prisoners, parole is unavailable for anyone incarcerated in Illinois' adult prisons.
We believe this is fundamentally wrong. We believe that prisoners should be encouraged to rehabilitate themselves and participate in programs which may aid in their rehabilitation. We believe rehabilitation not only make prisons safer for prisoners and staff, but also has a direct effect on public safety. We also believe that people who have demonstrated their capacity for change and who no longer threaten public safety deserve a chance at earning back some of their freedom.
We are not in favor of releasing everyone from prison; but we steadfastly believe that Illinois should have a mechanism in place to differentiate between prisoners whose continued incarceration does not serve the interests of justice, fairness or public safety and those whose incarceration is needed to incapacitate them from committing future crimes. Our position and advocacy for parole reform is not a popular one. Much of this is due to lack of education, but some of it is also due to a lack of political will on the part of our legislative leaders and policymakers. We have the power to change that. And this is where we need your help.
[1] However, approximately 300 prisoners - who were sentenced prior to 1978 - remain incarcerated under the old laws, and routinely come up for parole. They are called C# prisoners. Others, who are sentenced to a term of years, do a term of Mandatory Supervise Release, following their release from prison. This is often mistakenly referred to as parole. |
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