CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- More than 600 Illinois prison inmates have been released or placed in home confinement in the wake of COVID-19, and at least one state lawmaker has a problem with that.
The Illinois Department of Corrections says it continues to examine cases.
Republican State Rep. John Cabello, a police detective in the Rockford area, says he will hold Governor Pritzker “personally responsible if anything happens to any of our citizens from any of these people he released.”
“I’m furious, and so should every other taxpayer (be). He released seven murderers, four armed robbers, one person that was in prison for involuntary manslaughter - while he and the mayor have all the taxpayers on lockdown.”
The governor’s office has said the concern is that COVID-19 would decimate a vulnerable prison population. Pritzker on Thursday said a number of variables are taken into consideration as DOC or his office determines whether inmates will be released; these include the amount of time they have served, he said.
The ACLU has objected to Representative Cabello’s releasing the names of the inmates granted a commutation.