(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The state of Illinois is going to require more training for members of its Prisoner Review Board (PRB), Gov. J.B. Pritzker said, after a newly released inmate was accused of committing murder shortly after his release.
Pritzker said the need for training PRB members was tragically shown when a hearing ordered Crosetti Brand released from custody without considering his history of domestic violence.
Brand has been accused of stabbing is ex-girlfriend and killing her 11-year-old son the day after his release from prison. The boy was reportedly trying to protect his mother.
“There were reports by the victim of that person … knocking on her door, being around her apartment building, etcetera,” Pritzker said. “So one thing that we’ve decided to do is to make sure that we enhance the domestic violence training that all PRB members get.”
PRB Member Lee Ann Miller, who conducted the hearing that freed Brand, has since resigned. PRB Chair Donald Shelton has also resigned.
At an unrelated event, Pritzker said that the state is going to increase the domestic violence training that all PRB members get — whether they are new or existing ones.
“I think that the changes that are necessary here are evident in the fact that the panel didn’t take into consideration enough the domestic violence history of this particular prisoner,” he said.
He said the aim is to make sure this never happens again.
Republican lawmakers had already been criticizing the governor's appointees to the board. He said the more people politicize the latest incident, the harder it will be to replace the PRB members who have left.
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