His wife, Susan Hertzberg, 78, still in prison, is trying to get a compassionate early release due to her age, health problems and the virus. State Sen. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, urged his colleagues on the Senate Executive Committee Wednesday to pass the bill so legislators have vehicles for that potential compromise, but warned that he wouldnt let those negotiations stand in the way of the city getting an elected school board. He cited the rising numbers and urged the department to act quickly because of an anticipated nationwide fall/winter surge, making a priority of prisons with large elderly populations, such as the one in Dixon. J.B. Pritzker last week claims that the states prison system has failed to protect medically vulnerable prisoners from COVID-19. It changes and expands the compassionate release eligibility criteria; ensures the prisoners have the right to appeal the BOPs denial or neglect of the prisoners request for a compassionate release directly to court; and provides other important features, such as The tragedy is the number of people who have become sick and died. At about 100 pounds and in poor health, 78-year-old Susan Hertzberg hardly poses a threat to public safety, her lawyer said. It is still very much a real issue., Jennifer Soble, executive director of the Illinois Prison Project, which also represented the plaintiffs in the suit, said IDOC also is working on new policies regarding electronic detention, discretionary sentencing credits and others that will help thousands of other inmates as well.. INFORMATION ON WHERE TO OBTAIN DATA ON ILLINOIS INMATES PAROLED FROM THE FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM IS PROVIDED. He had three disciplinary tickets in four decades for minor infractions, said his lawyer, Soble. Staffers are expected to be prioritized with those in the health care field and other first responders. I want it [to be] clear that while I will continue to negotiate in good faith till the 11th hour of this General Assembly, I will not go quietly without passing something for an elected school board this year, said the Northwest Side Democrat, who is a sponsor of another elected school board measure. The epicenter of IDOC outbreaks in the first wave was at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, where 12 prisoners died in 4 weeks. If you are a member of the press, please contact our Director of Communications, Megan Groves, at megan@uplcchicago.org. Echevarria was a Chicago high school student when police arrested him in a 1999 fatal shooting he insists he did not commit. Editors Note: The print copy and a previous online version of this report contained incorrect information about the status of the constitutional amendment. Many experts agree the best way to control the virus in prison is to reduce head count. Officials also said they are doing more to hold staff accountable if they go unmasked at work. Camren Wynter hit a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to give Penn State a 68-65 victory against Northwestern. She said prison officials did not notify her or Wilsons wife that he was hospitalized until the family made repeated phone calls. Already approved by the state Senate, it will go before voters, appearing on Illinois ballot in 2022. May 12, 2020: Arkansas state officials announced that 300 inmates had been released from state prisons, and the states Board of Corrections have made over 1,200 inmates eligible for parole since April. As COVID-19 vaccination distribution has expanded across the country, incarcerated people remain one of the populations that is both most vulnerable to COVID-19 and most distrustful of medical care, according to several legal advocacy organizations. This report has been corrected to indicate that the state Senate had already passed the amendment. To stay up-to-date on our work,subscribe to our newsletter. We must act quickly. A man incarcerated at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill is among eight new deaths from the Coronavirus in Illinois, and 18 other inmates were taken to AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, officials said. To see charts broken down by prison. The latest surge has far exceeded any previous peaks inside the Illinois Department of Corrections since the start of the pandemic. Herman Townsell, who spent 71/2 years in prison for a 1994 home invasion, kidnapping and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and has been in and out of prison State Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, and then future state Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, on the Senate floor last year. On March 17th, civil rights groups signed an open letter to Governor Pritzker with demands related to prisoners in light of the COVID-19 outbreak in Illinois. Officials also did not respond to a request for comment on the case. She urged her colleagues to find a compromise that gets to what our children in the classroom need.. UPLC is tracking COVID-19 cases in IDOC. They ranged in age from 35 to 80, with a median age of 62. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune). But in denying emergency relief last year, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow said there was no convincing reason for a federal court to intrude on the effort by other stakeholders to contain the problem. INSTEAD, THERE IS A FIXED RELEASE DATE, ASSUMING GOOD TIME IS SERVED, SET BY LAW AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PRISON TERM. Roger and Susan Hertzberg before being convicted of marijuana trafficking for hauling nearly 50 pounds of pot through Illinois in 2012. As of mid-December, about 400 employees were out sick and up to 100 more are usually out waiting for test results. Press Release - Tuesday, February 21, 2023 ChicagoGovernor JB Pritzker today announced he will join the Reproductive Freedom Alliance (RFA), a non-partisan group of state Governors focused on working alongside one another to identify best practices for legislative and executive J.B. Pritzker is deploying medics from the Illinois National Guard to the Illinois Department of Corrections facility, where advocates have declared a disaster.. COVID-19 cases are ticking back upward across Chicago and the rest of Illinois even as vaccine supply improves, the top doctors from the city and state warned Tuesday. Months later, Stateville continues to see a steady flow of new cases but has not reported a COVID-19 fatality since mid-August, according to state data through Dec. 21. "Governor Pritzker's prioritization of legislative reforms of the criminal justice system reinforces the importance of collaboration among Illinois agencies to cultivate positive change.". As millions of Illinoisans are still waiting for their chance to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and even those who are eligible are scrambling for appointments, at least one group is largely giving up its place at the front of the vaccine line: people who work in Illinois prisons. He has come back to normal now since coming home with family, but remains thankful. Roger and Susan Hertzberg before being convicted of marijuana trafficking for hauling nearly 50 pounds of pot through Illinois in 2012. Camren Wynter hit a three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to give Penn State a 68-65 victory against Northwestern. Five days later, a 65-year-old sex offender from Rockford, Larry Bourbon, succumbed to the virus in his prison bunk. The testing is expected to be in place systemwide by late January. People incarcerated in Illinois will be among those vaccinated against coronavirus during the next phase, according to a newly released state plan. Im tending to believe they did nothing but left him on the floor, she said, because he went straight from his cell to a hospital.. Members of End Illinois Prison Lockdown Coalition rally as they call out Gov. The one prison worker known to have died of the disease was Linda Savage, a 64-year-old nurse at Vienna Correctional Center. Heres some of whats on our to-do list. Jeffreys said the outbreak mitigation program is in place at nine prisons, with several more planned. Lester Mason, 76, at the home of his nephew in East Peoria on Dec. 14, 2020. A lock ( In emailed responses to Tribune questions, Ryburn said he was not tested after Bourbon died but he did not get sick. (The Exoneration Project photo). About one-third of Dixons staff was out recently due to sickness, union officials said, and at least 10 inmates, including Watson Gray, have died there since November. Amanda Antholt, one of the attorneys representing the prisoners, said the settlement will likely affect up to 1,200 inmates across Illinois prisons. There were physicians that would tell us that a particular incarcerated individual was going to pass very soon and then, two, three years later the person is still living, said the Murphysboro Republican. CHICAGO Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation today that creates a path for the compassionate release of medically incapacitated individuals by the Prison Review Board (PRB). (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune), Arkee Chaney, 76, is an artist whose life sentence was commuted to time served in June after 31 years imprisonment for armed robbery. It was tough., Down to Business: Helping children learn to communicate empowers whole family, speech-language pathologist says, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice. People incarcerated in jails and prisons will be prioritized for vaccines along with people who are 65 and older, certain essential workers and people experiencing homelessness or residing in shelters, according to the plan released Dec. 31 by the state health department. This legislation gives the PRB the authority to grant or deny a prisoner early release based on their medical incapacity or terminal illness. WebGovernors in at least 11 states have issued executive orders that block new transfers into state prisons, allow early release for some prisoners, or both. "By signing the Joe Coleman Medical Release Act into law, it's my intention to honor Joe Coleman's legacy as a father, as a veteran, as a man who spent his days raising funds for charity from behind bars," said Governor JB Pritzker. Theyll all be given access to vaccines during the next phase, know as Phase 1B. THE PRISON REVIEW BOARD RECEIVES A PRINTOUT OF BACKGROUND AND INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY ON EACH PERSON APPEARING BEFORE THE BOARD FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SYSTEM AND IS SENT A MONTHLY PACKET OF INFORMATION FROM EACH INSTITUTION. She said the Department of Corrections already had a draft policy similar to the one reached in the agreement that was set to be implemented July 1. Sedelmaier died March 29 at age 59. To put the numbers in perspective, there were fewer than 700 known infections of inmates and staff across IDOC from March to early August, when the latest surge began. A 13th Stateville inmate died in August. Op-ed: The vaccine showdown no one is talking about: An Illinois mandate vs. the state's prison staffs. Vaccinating prisoners is good public policy. Bronis' son, Matthew Echevarria, is incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center. Members of End Illinois Prison Lockdown Coalition rally as they call out Gov. He tested positive for COVID-19 around Labor Day. So far, three incarcerated men in Illinois two who had been housed at Stateville prison in Crest Hill and a detainee at the Cook County Jail have died from complications related to the coronavirus. The pandemic hit Illinois prison system hard last spring, with cases mushrooming and fatalities reported at more than a dozen facilities before cases leveled off late in the year. About 400 staff and 1,700 inmates are considered current cases. The latest IDOC data shows 82 prison staff and 45 prisoners are currently positive for COVID-19, and a total of 4,177 staff and 10,768 prisoners have tested "I am proud that Illinois is leading with compassion and bringing a restorative justice lens to criminal justice policy making. 120 S Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606, United States, Box 6000, Dept F, Rockville, MD 20849, United States. At UPLC, we are doing our best to stay up to date on the latest COVID-19 developments at IDOC facilities around the state. In cases of medical incapacity, individuals may not be terminally ill, but in a state that renders them no longer a threat to the community. 1. A broken ankle. Our lives matter, Ehlers said in an email. Stateville Correctional Center personnel pull carts of hand sanitizer and bars of soap on April 24, 2020. State Rep. Marcus Evans, Jr., D-Chicago, celebrates passage of a ballot question for a constitutional amendment protecting the right to unionize on the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives Wednesday. More than 4,000 jail detainees have entered state prisons since then. J.B. Pritzker, which claimed they werent doing enough to protect against COVID-19. An Illinois federal judge on Friday refused to order the temporary release of nearly a third of the states prison population in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, saying the inmates arent entitled to such extraordinary relief even in these extraordinary times., A federal judge on Friday denied a request for the state to immediately release potentially thousands of at-risk detainees from Illinois prisons, saying that while the coronavirus pandemic is clearly a serious threat there was no convincing reason for a federal court to intrude here and now.". (Family photo). The law took effect January 1, 2022. A new point of contention is where prisoners will be on the vaccine distribution list. PNx SgXBN_]W*o!'13! ". People In Jails, Prisons Will Be Vaccinated In Next Phase, State Confirms After Advocates Push, Jail, Prison Populations Must be Among First to Get COVID-19 Vaccine: Advocacy Groups, COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging again in Illinois prisons, as inmates and advocates call for more action, Prioritizing Vaccines for Prisoners is Good Public Policy, Illinois to expand testing of prison workers as inmate deaths, infections surge, Forgotten: Stateville inmates warn of rising COVID-19 outbreak behind bars, Lawsuit: Illinois Prisons Are Failing To Protect Inmates From COVID-19, Lawsuit: Pritzker, IDOC Failed to Protect Vulnerable Inmates from COVID-19. The majority were nonwhite, with 24 listed as Black. This can include circumstances where an individual may be non-ambulatory due to a spinal injury. The IDOC administration, he said, has tried to be responsive. HB 3665 not only provides better, more compassionate care to Illinois' seriously ill population, but helps improve the overall prison healthcare system. A stress fracture in his shin. New questions were being raised Tuesday night about how many inmates have actually been released from state prisons because of the COVID-19 crisis, and Also, early release substantially accelerated the amount of crime suffered by the public, but contributed to less than 1 percent of all crimes reported in Illinois. Prisons in Illinois, nationally face staff shortages as correction officers quit amid COVID. SPRINGFIELD The right of Illinois workers to organize and to bargain collectively could soon be codified into the states constitution, and the terminally ill could soon secure early release from prison more quickly under measures that passed through the General Assembly Wednesday. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune). "It's only fitting that his death in prison, though tragic and unnecessary given the many who loved him, will help to restore dignity and humanity to incarcerated people and their families. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Corrections, demanding the immediate release of Illinois prisoners vulnerable to the coronavirus. Alan, welcome to the show. To see charts broken down by prison, click here. The Illinois legislature has provided IDOC with significant discretion to release people, and it should continue to do so, Bedi said. Last April, a federal judge denied their emergency request, finding the state was not violating prisoners' constitutional rights. Echevarria is incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center. Even if they matter to no one but us., Stateville Correctional Center personnel pull carts of hand sanitizer and bars of soap on April 24, 2020. 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