Coronavirus: Illinois governor faces backlash from police and Senate Republicans for releasing prisoners amid pandemic

Governor JB Pritzker commutes the sentences of 17 prisoners from 11 March to 9 April

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has faced criticism from police and Senate Republicans for releasing criminals during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter sent on Friday, the Illinois Coalition for Public Safety (COPS), said, “Our job is is very difficult and dangerous under ‘normal’ circumstances. The level of risk has been increased exponentially as a result of the current pandemic. Unfortunately, officers now also fear that violent convicted felons are being released back into the communities we have sworn to protect and serve.”

The letter came in response to the governor commuting 17 sentences between 11 March and 9 April, the Chicago Tribune reported. Another two prisoners’ sentences were commuted on 13 April, according to the Prisoner Review Board.

Police and lawmakers expressed concerns over those who experienced a commuted sentence, as some were convicted murders.

“We have learned through the media that you have reduced the sentences of some violent criminals, including seven or more convicted murderers,” eight Senate Republicans wrote in a letter to the governor on 16 April.

“We are concerned that you have done so without informing the victims, their families, witnesses who testified against them, local law enforcement leaders, the judges who decided their sentences, or members of the General Assembly. Are all of these commutations because of the COVID-19 crisis? We believe that the public deserves to know.”

The governor said the decision to commute any prisoners’ sentence first went through the Prisoner Review Board process.

“So I just want to be clear that those go through the PRB,” he said. “So they actually have a presentation of each case at the PRB, they vote on those cases before they ever get to my desk.”

The board was an independent body made up of members appointed by the governor. But Senate Republicans have accused Mr Pritzker of lacking transparency over his reasoning for releasing specific prisoners.

It was not revealed if the governor offered commuted sentences to prisoners because of the Covid-19 pandemic or for other reasons.

Civil rights and prison reform groups have praised the release of specific inmates from the prisons amid the pandemic, specifically when it related to medical furloughs and commutations.

“Releasing prisoners from these settings improves safety for other detainees, people who work in the corrections system as guards and administrators and also helps protect the communities where Illinois prisons are located,” Colleen Connell, executive director of the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement.

She said calls to release the names of the prisoners whose sentences were commuted was a ploy to spark “faux outrage”.

Illinois, like other states, has put into place new guidelines to help the prison population during the coronavirus.

Mr Pritzker signed an executive order to give state prison authorities more discretion on granting medical furloughs to inmates. The Illinois Department of Corrections has reduced the prison population by more than 1,345 inmates since 2 March, the Chicago Tribune reported.