This is a good way to stand as a state that has been overwhelmed as being corrupt in the past to stand to be the first leader among many states as we have already cut down over 7,000 prisoners that we have currently incarnation. This also will save tax payers money as we currently stand as a state spending 1.3 billion a year to sustain needs for inmates such as food, cells, medical care and other services that inmates will need. I agree with adding new policy’s such as in Mclean County that would address that individual’s wouldn’t have their parole or probation revoked if they made a agreement that they would return to a court date in the future this made change possible as this gives the person time to stay around their local area in order to still be a member of society without having to give away time from family and friends and services these individual’s wouldn’t obtain otherwise. With much of the approach being focused on violent offenses police reports have shown that fewer arrests were made showing a positive trend in this form of their new policies. This article also makes another point that holding individual’s without keeping them in jail allows them to keep their jobs stay close to their families which will decrease the likely hood of them committing a crime because their able to healthy contribute to their communities. Also shown community organizations are getting money back to if they are offering services to help the likelihood that individuals are less likely to spend time in prison. Also stated many local efforts were put in place to increase the likely hood that for a person who committed a nonviolent offense would gain probation with being able to have several chances before an individual had time spent in prison. eagle789
Its good that we are trying to make a change in Illinois because we needed to do something different because we were going down quick. We need something like this to happen because it can save space in prison for the people that really belong there and we can let the little things go and they can still provide for there family. Gator789
I do agree from the article that if people are detained for pre-trial their chances of going to prison are less. Also from the article it is more important that the ability of people remaining out of jail or prison while the case is pending allows them there’s jobs and take care of their families in other hand this process decreases overpopulation of jail and prisons. I do agree that coming up with state programs it has helped the state of Illinois decreasing the number of jail and prison population. If the state keep up with this at least the number of imitate will go down every year. It is a good idea that McLean county comprising elected and appointed policy makers like community members , attorney and law enforcement officials that come around together and examine the problems and strength also shortcoming of the local system. Crating new policies helps the community to lower the numbers of prison and jail population compared from decades. As indicated on the article criminal justice system results from complex set of policies and practices that may vary among jurisdiction. Illinois and the county of McLean are committed to reducing in warranted disparities in the system. Another thing that helps the state is that emery started the practice of letting judges and other decision makers know when his or her jail is nearing capacity. For this way judges put more emphasis on possible release of low level offenders and non violent offenders out of jail. Pre-trial programs also contributes something on letting people out of jail while waiting on their pending cases. According to the member of council, the creation of data drive decisions and changes of preliminary resulted a promising decrease in the percentage of convicted defendants from McLean county sentenced to state prison. Another big point or idea helped this state is the officials supplemented sentencing credits that offer some inmates a reduced prison stay.GUSII 789
Yes I agree that taking care of their families is more important to a person then for that person to be awaiting trail to see if they are guilty or not. Also, by not holding an individual in incarceration this allows this person to continue there jobs not only to provided but also as a way of keeping their self esteem as waiting for their trail may seem very depressing to this person this gives them a small taste of hope which will keep this person's emotional state in a moral. Also by leeting these lower level offenders out of jail this allows them to get the help needed in order to better themselves not to have this issue happen again and also helps to elective the cost overall to people of the community and the surrounding communities. eagle789
This article is really eye opening in the sense that it is dealing with our state, Illinois. It says that we are eighth in the U.S. for the highest inmate total. This is costing the state $1.3 billion annually. I don’t know if it is just me, but for a state that is bankrupt that is a lot of money that could be spent elsewhere. It is cool to see that the work Illinois has done so far has reduced it by 7,000. The way they are doing this is actually really interesting. They decided to bring everyone together and work together. By doing this they can let judges know when the jails are getting full and then when that happens, low-level offenders can be looked at for release. I think that is really good for the state, and yet also a great opportunity for non dangerous inmates to get a second chance at community at an early time. Another thing they have done is let prisoners who are at a low enough level like small infraction to not have to pay a bail. They just have to sign a paper that they promise to show up in court. I think this is a great thing to be doing. This lets people who may not have much money to pay as little of a bail as maybe $200 to not just wait and rot away in jail until their trial or sentencing. Through this time the crime rates have been decreasing over the time. It has proven to let these people take care of their families and keep their jobs while they await trial, as mentioned in the article. I think this way of doing things is giving people a better mindset toward the criminal justice system. - ST789
I agree with you on the fact this article is very eye-opening into how our state handles its prison and correctional system. Obviously some sort of reform was needed as we rank 8th in the nation for inmate total. Not only is this not good for our prison system because it means that we are often times overcrowded, but there is also a financial burden that is being placed on us as citizens, as our tax dollars are what is being used to house all of our inmates. Pack789
This article gave mentioned some good ideas for how the criminal justice system in Illinois is changing and how it can change for the better. A statistic was discussed telling how providing cells, food, medical care, and other services costs taxpayers $1.3 billion annually. This is a pretty crazy amount of money to be spending each year. However, one thing I would like to point out about this stat is the fact that rehabilitation is never mentioned. It may fall under the "other services" category, but this still proves how prisons are looking to make money, not try and focus on getting the inmates help and get them out of prison. Another idea that makes a lot of sense to me was one describing how after implementing a new pretrial program, it "gave judges more options than incarceration". In this new program, people are not being detained pre-trail. Research shows us that if someone is not detained during pre-tail, their chances of going to prison are less. This is because instead of being held in a cell, these people can still work at their jobs, take care of their families, and try to overcome whatever problems they may be facing, such as drug/substance abuse, mental health issues, etc. that could have had been a factor in their offenses. A final statement that makes the criminal justice system in Illinois look good is one saying how there has been a policy shift towards probation as the preferred disposition in non-violent criminal cases. I think this is a very good idea. By doing this, Illinois' prisons and jails will be attempting to deal with the problem of overcrowding. Less and less people will be going to jail with non-violent offenses. Instead, they will be going to be put on probation, where they can still work at their jobs and possibly get over whatever obstacle it was that caused them to commit the non-violent offense they did. -Fozz789
As we can see all throughout our country in modern times, our crime rate shave been steadily declining year after year however our incarceration rates have been increasing rapidly. This a major problem because our prisons are already overcrowded as it is, and the people that we are incarcerating for long periods of times are people who have committed minor crimes such as selling weed, or just doing a drug in general. In response to these alarming incarceration rates we have started being more lenient with people and giving them parole so as to keep our prison population down and keep enough room available for the criminals that actually need to be in prison. Illinois has started to try and decrease its own prison population which has been growing over the last 3 decades, they are starting by just not incarcerating as many people and giving more people parole, and Illinois has been able to decrease its prison population by 7,000 just within the last couple of years. Another thing that Illinois is trying to reduce is the amount of money that taxpayers have to play for each inmate, which annually in Illinois is roughly $1.3 billion, that’s right billion, not million. Decreasing our prison population will help lift an economic burden that has been destroying our state for some time now. Illinois has also adjusted how bail works within the court system, because as we know those who are awaiting trial have to sit in jail if they cannot afford their bail, and because of this we as taxpayers are paying for someone to sit in jail while they wait for trial all because there are people who cannot afford bail. These actions that Illinois is taking/has taken are crucial to reforming our prison system and hopefully other states can use what we have done as a basis for reforming their own, respective correctional system. Pack789
In this article talks about what Illinois doing to get the number of prisoners in our state to decrease. According to this article Bruce Rauner set a goal of cutting the prison population by 25 percent by 2025. Which is extremely good considering the fact that three decades ago the prison population was 10,000 inmates and in 2015 it was more than 48,000 inmates. These staggering numbers of course also come with a staggering amount of costs. To house these inmates cost taxpayers in Illinois $1.3 billion annually. The article says that one of the first criminal justice coordinating Council‘s was started in central annoy in 2011 to address chronic overcrowding at the McLean county jail. The largest leading for their increased rate of incarceration was to no one surprise drug charges. The county was sending drug offenders to even state prisons at an alarming rate. Committee was made and they worked with former county sheriff Mike Emery to help put in place new policies as far as the county jails are concerned. Personally after reading this article I really like how Emery started the practice of leading judges and other lawmakers know when his jail was nearing capacity and putting more of an emphasis on the release of low level offenders at bond hearings. To me the fact that a first time low level offender might have to sit in jail for weeks only because he can’t pay even as little as $100 bail is crazy. Those people should be out on the streets after they agree to show up to the court date because they are not a threat to society. It is not there fault that the system is slow and as tax payers we shouldn't want people like that in jail for an extended amount of time. Overall this article very interesting and it’s great to see Illinois is trying to reduce mass incarceration. -RHB789
I agree with a lot of what you say. The sudden and large increase in prison population from 10000 to 48000 is something that was very alarming and it is good that the state is now employing something to reduce that number. Overcrowding in prison and jails is a big problem in the United States and a whole and it is good that someone is doing something about it. It also cost the state 1.3 billion USD to house these inmates and with less inmates to house I believe an increase in revenue should show if the program succeeds in the end. –TheMarshall789
With reading this article telling how the jail/prison problem in the US is not going to get better anytime soon as it looks right now. When they interviewed someone for this they told everybody what is going on in prison/jail. They said that people are being held in jail because they can’t pay their bond. There are forced to stay in our system just because they can’t pay out of it. One of the other things that they talked about is the overcrowding in our prison and we already know that we have this problem a long time ago. There was a state that they said in this and it was nearly 70% of people held in New York State jails have not been convicted yet. Therefore, we have a problem with our prison systems. If you look at that state, you can see we have so many people that are convicted but have not have trial yet so we just through them into prison because that the only spot to put them. The thing is there crime could be little but since they haven’t had trial, yet we are supposed to keep them, so they don’t do anything worse when they are on the streets. Now I know people don’t want to end up in prison but let’s talk about how they are getting mistreated in the prison. They say that they are breaking violations and there is violence in the prisons that we don’t see. You see if we don’t get ahold of thing like this that are going around then people will start getting hit with names and it will not end up good for the stat of New York.
With reading this article telling how the jail/prison problem in the US is not going to get better anytime soon as it looks right now. When they interviewed someone for this they told everybody what is going on in prison/jail. They said that people are being held in jail because they can’t pay their bond. There are forced to stay in our system just because they can’t pay out of it. One of the other things that they talked about is the overcrowding in our prison and we already know that we have this problem a long time ago. There was a state that they said in this and it was nearly 70% of people held in New York State jails have not been convicted yet. Therefore, we have a problem with our prison systems. If you look at that state, you can see we have so many people that are convicted but have not have trial yet so we just through them into prison because that the only spot to put them. The thing is there crime could be little but since they haven’t had trial, yet we are supposed to keep them, so they don’t do anything worse when they are on the streets. Now I know people don’t want to end up in prison but let’s talk about how they are getting mistreated in the prison. They say that they are breaking violations and there is violence in the prisons that we don’t see. You see if we don’t get ahold of thing like this that are going around then people will start getting hit with names and it will not end up good for the stat of New York. Gator789
This article about how Illinois and how they are responding to the ever increasing cover population actually surprised me. Partially because I believe that Illinois is one of the few states that has one of the most populous cities and one of the most crime ridden cities in the United States. It also surprised me that the state was already working on it and already decreased it. 7000 already cut down. It is actually quite impressive and I believe that other states should be looking into it and I believe the article said they are. Mass incarceration is a big problem in the United States and accounted for a large portion out of government and taxpayer pockets. The money needed for food, water, living costs, pay, etc. cost more and more every years and Illinois’ response to it has shown great promise. If implemented correctly in other states or the United States as a whole, it could greatly reduce prison population and, in turn, save loads of money for use in other areas of the states or government, things like infrastructure or education which could help the United States in the long run. The state of Illinois pays 1.3 billion every year in cost for the state correctional system and with a successful reduction as the one in the article could produce less strain physically and economically of the people of the state, the ones who pay taxes at least which is mostly everyone. It is also good that they are concentrating on more violent and dangerous offenders and less on nonviolent offenders as this would take those who may cause a big problem if left on the street and throw them in prison while cases of trivial matters are less likely to get time in a correctional facility which is how it should be. –TheMarshall789
This article mentioned some very good ideas as fiscal responsibility goes, but I question whether or not the reforms considered will be best for the country in the long run. Part of the article suggested extended probation as an alternative to prison time. It is often argued that prison time does not do anything to stop crime in the long run because it is punitive not rehabilitative. While I agree with this frame of mind, I have no reason to believe that extended probation would do anything more for people. If it does not, than the pros and cons between the two are pretty obvious. Prison almost completely prevents inmates from harming the outside world and is expensive while probation is less likely to prevent crime but much cheaper. I also have mixed feelings about suspects being detained before their trial. If the suspect is very likely to receive a long term sentencing, he or she has less incentive to abide by the law while out of custody. However, the article raised very good points about jail time being destructive to careers and families. An innocent person deserves reimbursement for these losses and it is better that these people do not endure these losses in the first place. I think a happy median would be heavy surveillance while on trial. Overall, I think these changes are a step in the right direction in some cases, but I would like to see a greater movement toward rehabilitation. Until the purpose of the justice system is determined by the people, the only positive will be monetary for the most case. Rudedogg789
Great article I thought! mass incarceration is a huge problem in the United States. Now, Illinois is a state with cities like Chicago, who have crime rate that is high among of the states I believe. Now what is Illinois is trying to do is very impressive because putting in people in jail involves over crowding prisons and jails. I believe the number was 7,000 or more that has decreased over time, which is very good. It’s a still a good time we can do better, but over time will tell. Now our correctional system is a mess, or in other cases is corrupted because of more than half of the people incarcerated are people who are dealing with drugs. Now, this is were rehab comes in because its cheaper to help the offenders not to re do their same mistakes. Somewhere in the article states that the number to pay to put someone in jail cost a over a thousands of dollars, which is incredible high for one person I think. Now, in New York is a little bit different, but the incarceration rates are still very high. The numbers aren’t just reducing, so we need to do a better job of that. These so called prisoners or offenders who are in prisons have to wait for long periods of time because its not like they have a million dollar to sitting in their bank account to get bailed out, and its not that easy for everyone. I believe it hurts the states of the United States. But, its good to see a decision of criminal justice in the state of Illinois because were becoming more and more aware of the prisons and maybe help the offender not to re-enter the system again because of money wise. Again, awesome article! - LILPUMP789
This article is basically discussing what Illinois is doing to decrease are numbers in prison. It is no secret that are crime rate has decreased but the amount of people that are in jail or prison has increased and that is due to small and minor things that people should not be incarcerated for. The stat that popped out while I was reading was that by providing cells, food, and medicare it costs taxpayers 1.3 million dollars. All I could think about while reading this was that rehabilitation was never ever mentioned. Which is crazy because that is one of the things that will decrease the overcrowding rates in prisons, but this just shows how prisons rather make money then spend it to help people. There is no surprise that the leading incarceration rates was drug charges. Which to in hindsight should be something that should be rehabilitated and not locked up unless it is a fairly large amount. They are sending large amounts of drug offenders to prison very fast and without looking back which is very concerning. I really liked how Emery started leading judges other people of the law to know when the jail and prison is at a near capacitation. Which causes them to reconsider release for low time offenders. It still blows my mind that many people sit in jail for many weeks until their trial because they can not make bail. Those people are not any threat to society and should be just sent back to streets if they agree to show up to court, because more than likely they will so they don't increase the amount of things they are in trouble for. As taxpayers we shouldn't want people in jail unless they really have to be because that means more taxes for us. After reading this article I still think it's great that illinois is trying to decrease the mass incarceration in these country. Hollywood789
I agree that number is staggering considering rehabilitation was not mentioned in the process. Things like rehab i believe really can help the number of people in prison reduce instead of re offending. I also enjoyed What Emery was doing by letting the Judges know the overall capacity of the jails. I to am mind blown at the fact that people will just sit in jail because they dont have enough money. Its sad because that could be a contributor as to why there in there in the first place.-pj789
The United States of America seems to have a big problem with overcrowding prisons, and the population in prisons. The state of Illinois is no exception to this. Illinois had around 48,000 people in prison in the year 2015, and it costs the taxpayers 1.3 Billion dollars each year to keep them in prison. Governor Bruce Rauner has done a good job at helping lower these numbers, but there still need to be more change. Judges have started being informed when the population of the jails and prisons are becoming overcrowded. This lets the judges know to potentially give more leniency to the people that commit low level crimes and offenses. The judges also have more options than just incarcerating people now. They do not want to overcrowd the prison with people that do not deserve to be in there. Before the reform happened there were many instances of people who were not able to pay the bail price, and those people would have to sit in jail, for months at a time before there case would be reviewed. Now people that commit low level crimes like infractions or non-violent crimes like that only must agree to show up to court to be set on bond. There has also been research that has reported to say that people that are not detained pre-trial are less likely to be sentenced to jail. I think that this reform has done a good job at helping put less people in jail and in prison, but I think there is still a long way to go. I think that the reputation of being detained also hurts people. People look at them differently and so does the court. You are less likely to see the person as a human, and more likely to see them as a criminal, because that is where they have been staying for the past couple of months. dp789
I agree with what you said about people who are detained being seen as less of a person and more as a criminal. If a person is labeled a certain way im sure they will act the part in order to fit that status. Its awesome that they are letting low level offenders have a better shot at things by letting them just agree to meet in court instead of locking them up. I liked that part in the article about letting the judges be informed about the capacity of jails. Its a great things to see people working together in the CRJ field.-pj789
Well wow! I’m used to hearing a lot of bad news when it comes to Illinois it’s kind of nice to read something positive that’s going on. The fact that 1.3 billion dollars was being spent on prisons in Illinois is crazy but it’s nice that it didn’t go unnoticed. Governor Bruce Rauner has done a good thing here in my opinion. Getting local authorities to let the judges know if there was enough room for new offenders is a good idea and it’s nice to see that people are working together to solve this problem. It’s no mystery that this nation has a serious mass incarceration problem and it’s nice to see that people are noticing this and seeing low level offenses in a new light. The plans that were implemented in Mclean by the cjcc are great ideas. Especially the one I stated early on about letting judges now the capacity of the jails. It really is sad that some people had to spend time behind bar because they couldn’t pay the bond. Other people were being held do to ordnance violations and its nice they changed that to just house more serious violent offenses. One thing that stood out to me in this article was the fact that crime had actually gone down during this time. It goes to show that once again maybe tough on crime isn’t the only answer. This article is showing the change in mentality from throw everyone away to a rehabilitation type mentality. Programs like the Illinois redeploy program are a great start in a good direction in my opinion. Yes money I’m sure is the main concern but it’s still something so people can get a better shot at life. This was a good read!-pj789
There was a lot of really good information that came out of this article from the policies or the way that they will do things to help. From this they said that I would be a good idea to let people that are on trial to stay out of prison or jail and let them live their lives like normal people until they have their trial. If we leave them out they can keep working and be with their families just to make it easy for them. With doing this, this would help with us ending overcrowding of prison because we have them out there and being around people. Mclean county and Illinois are working together to cut down on the warranted disparities in our system that we have. Now this is a big thing if it could happen, but we will have to see. They are going to try and let the judge tell when there enough people in the system and they are going to let them give them less of a penalty, so we are not overcrowding our prisons. With them trying to do this they will let people with like little drug charges stay on the street, so they can help out there family and don’t have to worry about going away. If we could do this it would save tax payers 1.3 billion dollars a years to help provide essential needs to the inmates this would be the best and help out a lot with be the worst state to live in. gator789
The Illinois Goal is to get at least twenty-five percent of cutting off prison rolls by 2025. Tax payers pay over 1.3 billion yearly for cells, food, medical care, and other services. The place where they decide if you were to go to Prison is at the local Criminal justice system. That’s also the main Focus is on collaboration policies to have a better state. 2011 was the year they began criminal justice coordinator counseling(CJCC) at central Illinois McLean County, where the jails where overfilled. According to Mike Emery who admitted of new policies of the unpleasant number of prisoners. I feel that The best of the five Illinois communities is McLean county is the best local criminal justice council. It has been seven years and it still doing good. For example if they cut the prison sentences in half it could stop the overfilling of prisoners. Most of these prisoners are are arrested for drug use it would help if they went to rehab programs so their would not be overcrowded. I believe that people who are imprisoned for smaller crimes should have lesser sentencing, so we could decrease the amount of population in prisons. Also, people who break their probations, for smaller crimes should have lesser supervised probations, because the longer a probation is the more likely a person that is on probation breaks it. The National criminal justice Association (NCJA) that are focused on the governors and state legislatures that had controlled over the amount of years you are prisoners, is not a bad thing about this because Illinois reforms was the first three is chosen on the project that was presenter by the National Governor and national criminal justice association. Once state such as Illinois supports and partners with local entities to addresses crimes and strengthen Public Safety. -justice789
This is a good way to stand as a state that has been overwhelmed as being corrupt in the past to stand to be the first leader among many states as we have already cut down over 7,000 prisoners that we have currently incarnation. This also will save tax payers money as we currently stand as a state spending 1.3 billion a year to sustain needs for inmates such as food, cells, medical care and other services that inmates will need. I agree with adding new policy’s such as in Mclean County that would address that individual’s wouldn’t have their parole or probation revoked if they made a agreement that they would return to a court date in the future this made change possible as this gives the person time to stay around their local area in order to still be a member of society without having to give away time from family and friends and services these individual’s wouldn’t obtain otherwise. With much of the approach being focused on violent offenses police reports have shown that fewer arrests were made showing a positive trend in this form of their new policies. This article also makes another point that holding individual’s without keeping them in jail allows them to keep their jobs stay close to their families which will decrease the likely hood of them committing a crime because their able to healthy contribute to their communities. Also shown community organizations are getting money back to if they are offering services to help the likelihood that individuals are less likely to spend time in prison. Also stated many local efforts were put in place to increase the likely hood that for a person who committed a nonviolent offense would gain probation with being able to have several chances before an individual had time spent in prison. eagle789
ReplyDeleteIts good that we are trying to make a change in Illinois because we needed to do something different because we were going down quick. We need something like this to happen because it can save space in prison for the people that really belong there and we can let the little things go and they can still provide for there family. Gator789
DeleteI do agree from the article that if people are detained for pre-trial their chances of going to prison are less. Also from the article it is more important that the ability of people remaining out of jail or prison while the case is pending allows them there’s jobs and take care of their families in other hand this process decreases overpopulation of jail and prisons. I do agree that coming up with state programs it has helped the state of Illinois decreasing the number of jail and prison population. If the state keep up with this at least the number of imitate will go down every year. It is a good idea that McLean county comprising elected and appointed policy makers like community members , attorney and law enforcement officials that come around together and examine the problems and strength also shortcoming of the local system. Crating new policies helps the community to lower the numbers of prison and jail population compared from decades. As indicated on the article criminal justice system results from complex set of policies and practices that may vary among jurisdiction. Illinois and the county of McLean are committed to reducing in warranted disparities in the system. Another thing that helps the state is that emery started the practice of letting judges and other decision makers know when his or her jail is nearing capacity. For this way judges put more emphasis on possible release of low level offenders and non violent offenders out of jail. Pre-trial programs also contributes something on letting people out of jail while waiting on their pending cases. According to the member of council, the creation of data drive decisions and changes of preliminary resulted a promising decrease in the percentage of convicted defendants from McLean county sentenced to state prison. Another big point or idea helped this state is the officials supplemented sentencing credits that offer some inmates a reduced prison stay.GUSII 789
ReplyDeleteYes I agree that taking care of their families is more important to a person then for that person to be awaiting trail to see if they are guilty or not. Also, by not holding an individual in incarceration this allows this person to continue there jobs not only to provided but also as a way of keeping their self esteem as waiting for their trail may seem very depressing to this person this gives them a small taste of hope which will keep this person's emotional state in a moral. Also by leeting these lower level offenders out of jail this allows them to get the help needed in order to better themselves not to have this issue happen again and also helps to elective the cost overall to people of the community and the surrounding communities. eagle789
DeleteThis article is really eye opening in the sense that it is dealing with our state, Illinois. It says that we are eighth in the U.S. for the highest inmate total. This is costing the state $1.3 billion annually. I don’t know if it is just me, but for a state that is bankrupt that is a lot of money that could be spent elsewhere. It is cool to see that the work Illinois has done so far has reduced it by 7,000. The way they are doing this is actually really interesting. They decided to bring everyone together and work together. By doing this they can let judges know when the jails are getting full and then when that happens, low-level offenders can be looked at for release. I think that is really good for the state, and yet also a great opportunity for non dangerous inmates to get a second chance at community at an early time. Another thing they have done is let prisoners who are at a low enough level like small infraction to not have to pay a bail. They just have to sign a paper that they promise to show up in court. I think this is a great thing to be doing. This lets people who may not have much money to pay as little of a bail as maybe $200 to not just wait and rot away in jail until their trial or sentencing. Through this time the crime rates have been decreasing over the time. It has proven to let these people take care of their families and keep their jobs while they await trial, as mentioned in the article. I think this way of doing things is giving people a better mindset toward the criminal justice system.
ReplyDelete- ST789
I agree with you on the fact this article is very eye-opening into how our state handles its prison and correctional system. Obviously some sort of reform was needed as we rank 8th in the nation for inmate total. Not only is this not good for our prison system because it means that we are often times overcrowded, but there is also a financial burden that is being placed on us as citizens, as our tax dollars are what is being used to house all of our inmates. Pack789
DeleteThis article gave mentioned some good ideas for how the criminal justice system in Illinois is changing and how it can change for the better. A statistic was discussed telling how providing cells, food, medical care, and other services costs taxpayers $1.3 billion annually. This is a pretty crazy amount of money to be spending each year. However, one thing I would like to point out about this stat is the fact that rehabilitation is never mentioned. It may fall under the "other services" category, but this still proves how prisons are looking to make money, not try and focus on getting the inmates help and get them out of prison. Another idea that makes a lot of sense to me was one describing how after implementing a new pretrial program, it "gave judges more options than incarceration". In this new program, people are not being detained pre-trail. Research shows us that if someone is not detained during pre-tail, their chances of going to prison are less. This is because instead of being held in a cell, these people can still work at their jobs, take care of their families, and try to overcome whatever problems they may be facing, such as drug/substance abuse, mental health issues, etc. that could have had been a factor in their offenses. A final statement that makes the criminal justice system in Illinois look good is one saying how there has been a policy shift towards probation as the preferred disposition in non-violent criminal cases. I think this is a very good idea. By doing this, Illinois' prisons and jails will be attempting to deal with the problem of overcrowding. Less and less people will be going to jail with non-violent offenses. Instead, they will be going to be put on probation, where they can still work at their jobs and possibly get over whatever obstacle it was that caused them to commit the non-violent offense they did.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
As we can see all throughout our country in modern times, our crime rate shave been steadily declining year after year however our incarceration rates have been increasing rapidly. This a major problem because our prisons are already overcrowded as it is, and the people that we are incarcerating for long periods of times are people who have committed minor crimes such as selling weed, or just doing a drug in general. In response to these alarming incarceration rates we have started being more lenient with people and giving them parole so as to keep our prison population down and keep enough room available for the criminals that actually need to be in prison. Illinois has started to try and decrease its own prison population which has been growing over the last 3 decades, they are starting by just not incarcerating as many people and giving more people parole, and Illinois has been able to decrease its prison population by 7,000 just within the last couple of years. Another thing that Illinois is trying to reduce is the amount of money that taxpayers have to play for each inmate, which annually in Illinois is roughly $1.3 billion, that’s right billion, not million. Decreasing our prison population will help lift an economic burden that has been destroying our state for some time now. Illinois has also adjusted how bail works within the court system, because as we know those who are awaiting trial have to sit in jail if they cannot afford their bail, and because of this we as taxpayers are paying for someone to sit in jail while they wait for trial all because there are people who cannot afford bail. These actions that Illinois is taking/has taken are crucial to reforming our prison system and hopefully other states can use what we have done as a basis for reforming their own, respective correctional system. Pack789
ReplyDeleteIn this article talks about what Illinois doing to get the number of prisoners in our state to decrease. According to this article Bruce Rauner set a goal of cutting the prison population by 25 percent by 2025. Which is extremely good considering the fact that three decades ago the prison population was 10,000 inmates and in 2015 it was more than 48,000 inmates. These staggering numbers of course also come with a staggering amount of costs. To house these inmates cost taxpayers in Illinois $1.3 billion annually. The article says that one of the first criminal justice coordinating Council‘s was started in central annoy in 2011 to address chronic overcrowding at the McLean county jail. The largest leading for their increased rate of incarceration was to no one surprise drug charges. The county was sending drug offenders to even state prisons at an alarming rate. Committee was made and they worked with former county sheriff Mike Emery to help put in place new policies as far as the county jails are concerned. Personally after reading this article I really like how Emery started the practice of leading judges and other lawmakers know when his jail was nearing capacity and putting more of an emphasis on the release of low level offenders at bond hearings. To me the fact that a first time low level offender might have to sit in jail for weeks only because he can’t pay even as little as $100 bail is crazy. Those people should be out on the streets after they agree to show up to the court date because they are not a threat to society. It is not there fault that the system is slow and as tax payers we shouldn't want people like that in jail for an extended amount of time. Overall this article very interesting and it’s great to see Illinois is trying to reduce mass incarceration.
ReplyDelete-RHB789
I agree with a lot of what you say. The sudden and large increase in prison population from 10000 to 48000 is something that was very alarming and it is good that the state is now employing something to reduce that number. Overcrowding in prison and jails is a big problem in the United States and a whole and it is good that someone is doing something about it. It also cost the state 1.3 billion USD to house these inmates and with less inmates to house I believe an increase in revenue should show if the program succeeds in the end. –TheMarshall789
DeleteWith reading this article telling how the jail/prison problem in the US is not going to get better anytime soon as it looks right now. When they interviewed someone for this they told everybody what is going on in prison/jail. They said that people are being held in jail because they can’t pay their bond. There are forced to stay in our system just because they can’t pay out of it. One of the other things that they talked about is the overcrowding in our prison and we already know that we have this problem a long time ago. There was a state that they said in this and it was nearly 70% of people held in New York State jails have not been convicted yet. Therefore, we have a problem with our prison systems. If you look at that state, you can see we have so many people that are convicted but have not have trial yet so we just through them into prison because that the only spot to put them. The thing is there crime could be little but since they haven’t had trial, yet we are supposed to keep them, so they don’t do anything worse when they are on the streets. Now I know people don’t want to end up in prison but let’s talk about how they are getting mistreated in the prison. They say that they are breaking violations and there is violence in the prisons that we don’t see. You see if we don’t get ahold of thing like this that are going around then people will start getting hit with names and it will not end up good for the stat of New York.
ReplyDeleteWith reading this article telling how the jail/prison problem in the US is not going to get better anytime soon as it looks right now. When they interviewed someone for this they told everybody what is going on in prison/jail. They said that people are being held in jail because they can’t pay their bond. There are forced to stay in our system just because they can’t pay out of it. One of the other things that they talked about is the overcrowding in our prison and we already know that we have this problem a long time ago. There was a state that they said in this and it was nearly 70% of people held in New York State jails have not been convicted yet. Therefore, we have a problem with our prison systems. If you look at that state, you can see we have so many people that are convicted but have not have trial yet so we just through them into prison because that the only spot to put them. The thing is there crime could be little but since they haven’t had trial, yet we are supposed to keep them, so they don’t do anything worse when they are on the streets. Now I know people don’t want to end up in prison but let’s talk about how they are getting mistreated in the prison. They say that they are breaking violations and there is violence in the prisons that we don’t see. You see if we don’t get ahold of thing like this that are going around then people will start getting hit with names and it will not end up good for the stat of New York. Gator789
DeleteThis article about how Illinois and how they are responding to the ever increasing cover population actually surprised me. Partially because I believe that Illinois is one of the few states that has one of the most populous cities and one of the most crime ridden cities in the United States. It also surprised me that the state was already working on it and already decreased it. 7000 already cut down. It is actually quite impressive and I believe that other states should be looking into it and I believe the article said they are. Mass incarceration is a big problem in the United States and accounted for a large portion out of government and taxpayer pockets. The money needed for food, water, living costs, pay, etc. cost more and more every years and Illinois’ response to it has shown great promise. If implemented correctly in other states or the United States as a whole, it could greatly reduce prison population and, in turn, save loads of money for use in other areas of the states or government, things like infrastructure or education which could help the United States in the long run. The state of Illinois pays 1.3 billion every year in cost for the state correctional system and with a successful reduction as the one in the article could produce less strain physically and economically of the people of the state, the ones who pay taxes at least which is mostly everyone. It is also good that they are concentrating on more violent and dangerous offenders and less on nonviolent offenders as this would take those who may cause a big problem if left on the street and throw them in prison while cases of trivial matters are less likely to get time in a correctional facility which is how it should be. –TheMarshall789
ReplyDeleteThis article mentioned some very good ideas as fiscal responsibility goes, but I question whether or not the reforms considered will be best for the country in the long run. Part of the article suggested extended probation as an alternative to prison time. It is often argued that prison time does not do anything to stop crime in the long run because it is punitive not rehabilitative. While I agree with this frame of mind, I have no reason to believe that extended probation would do anything more for people. If it does not, than the pros and cons between the two are pretty obvious. Prison almost completely prevents inmates from harming the outside world and is expensive while probation is less likely to prevent crime but much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI also have mixed feelings about suspects being detained before their trial. If the suspect is very likely to receive a long term sentencing, he or she has less incentive to abide by the law while out of custody. However, the article raised very good points about jail time being destructive to careers and families. An innocent person deserves reimbursement for these losses and it is better that these people do not endure these losses in the first place. I think a happy median would be heavy surveillance while on trial.
Overall, I think these changes are a step in the right direction in some cases, but I would like to see a greater movement toward rehabilitation. Until the purpose of the justice system is determined by the people, the only positive will be monetary for the most case.
Rudedogg789
Great article I thought! mass incarceration is a huge problem in the United States. Now, Illinois is a state with cities like Chicago, who have crime rate that is high among of the states I believe. Now what is Illinois is trying to do is very impressive because putting in people in jail involves over crowding prisons and jails. I believe the number was 7,000 or more that has decreased over time, which is very good. It’s a still a good time we can do better, but over time will tell. Now our correctional system is a mess, or in other cases is corrupted because of more than half of the people incarcerated are people who are dealing with drugs. Now, this is were rehab comes in because its cheaper to help the offenders not to re do their same mistakes. Somewhere in the article states that the number to pay to put someone in jail cost a over a thousands of dollars, which is incredible high for one person I think. Now, in New York is a little bit different, but the incarceration rates are still very high. The numbers aren’t just reducing, so we need to do a better job of that. These so called prisoners or offenders who are in prisons have to wait for long periods of time because its not like they have a million dollar to sitting in their bank account to get bailed out, and its not that easy for everyone. I believe it hurts the states of the United States. But, its good to see a decision of criminal justice in the state of Illinois because were becoming more and more aware of the prisons and maybe help the offender not to re-enter the system again because of money wise. Again, awesome article! - LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteThis article is basically discussing what Illinois is doing to decrease are numbers in prison. It is no secret that are crime rate has decreased but the amount of people that are in jail or prison has increased and that is due to small and minor things that people should not be incarcerated for. The stat that popped out while I was reading was that by providing cells, food, and medicare it costs taxpayers 1.3 million dollars. All I could think about while reading this was that rehabilitation was never ever mentioned. Which is crazy because that is one of the things that will decrease the overcrowding rates in prisons, but this just shows how prisons rather make money then spend it to help people. There is no surprise that the leading incarceration rates was drug charges. Which to in hindsight should be something that should be rehabilitated and not locked up unless it is a fairly large amount. They are sending large amounts of drug offenders to prison very fast and without looking back which is very concerning. I really liked how Emery started leading judges other people of the law to know when the jail and prison is at a near capacitation. Which causes them to reconsider release for low time offenders. It still blows my mind that many people sit in jail for many weeks until their trial because they can not make bail. Those people are not any threat to society and should be just sent back to streets if they agree to show up to court, because more than likely they will so they don't increase the amount of things they are in trouble for. As taxpayers we shouldn't want people in jail unless they really have to be because that means more taxes for us. After reading this article I still think it's great that illinois is trying to decrease the mass incarceration in these country.
ReplyDeleteHollywood789
I agree that number is staggering considering rehabilitation was not mentioned in the process. Things like rehab i believe really can help the number of people in prison reduce instead of re offending. I also enjoyed What Emery was doing by letting the Judges know the overall capacity of the jails. I to am mind blown at the fact that people will just sit in jail because they dont have enough money. Its sad because that could be a contributor as to why there in there in the first place.-pj789
DeleteThe United States of America seems to have a big problem with overcrowding prisons, and the population in prisons. The state of Illinois is no exception to this. Illinois had around 48,000 people in prison in the year 2015, and it costs the taxpayers 1.3 Billion dollars each year to keep them in prison. Governor Bruce Rauner has done a good job at helping lower these numbers, but there still need to be more change. Judges have started being informed when the population of the jails and prisons are becoming overcrowded. This lets the judges know to potentially give more leniency to the people that commit low level crimes and offenses. The judges also have more options than just incarcerating people now. They do not want to overcrowd the prison with people that do not deserve to be in there. Before the reform happened there were many instances of people who were not able to pay the bail price, and those people would have to sit in jail, for months at a time before there case would be reviewed. Now people that commit low level crimes like infractions or non-violent crimes like that only must agree to show up to court to be set on bond. There has also been research that has reported to say that people that are not detained pre-trial are less likely to be sentenced to jail. I think that this reform has done a good job at helping put less people in jail and in prison, but I think there is still a long way to go. I think that the reputation of being detained also hurts people. People look at them differently and so does the court. You are less likely to see the person as a human, and more likely to see them as a criminal, because that is where they have been staying for the past couple of months. dp789
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about people who are detained being seen as less of a person and more as a criminal. If a person is labeled a certain way im sure they will act the part in order to fit that status. Its awesome that they are letting low level offenders have a better shot at things by letting them just agree to meet in court instead of locking them up. I liked that part in the article about letting the judges be informed about the capacity of jails. Its a great things to see people working together in the CRJ field.-pj789
DeleteWell wow! I’m used to hearing a lot of bad news when it comes to Illinois it’s kind of nice to read something positive that’s going on. The fact that 1.3 billion dollars was being spent on prisons in Illinois is crazy but it’s nice that it didn’t go unnoticed. Governor Bruce Rauner has done a good thing here in my opinion. Getting local authorities to let the judges know if there was enough room for new offenders is a good idea and it’s nice to see that people are working together to solve this problem. It’s no mystery that this nation has a serious mass incarceration problem and it’s nice to see that people are noticing this and seeing low level offenses in a new light. The plans that were implemented in Mclean by the cjcc are great ideas. Especially the one I stated early on about letting judges now the capacity of the jails. It really is sad that some people had to spend time behind bar because they couldn’t pay the bond. Other people were being held do to ordnance violations and its nice they changed that to just house more serious violent offenses. One thing that stood out to me in this article was the fact that crime had actually gone down during this time. It goes to show that once again maybe tough on crime isn’t the only answer. This article is showing the change in mentality from throw everyone away to a rehabilitation type mentality. Programs like the Illinois redeploy program are a great start in a good direction in my opinion. Yes money I’m sure is the main concern but it’s still something so people can get a better shot at life. This was a good read!-pj789
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of really good information that came out of this article from the policies or the way that they will do things to help. From this they said that I would be a good idea to let people that are on trial to stay out of prison or jail and let them live their lives like normal people until they have their trial. If we leave them out they can keep working and be with their families just to make it easy for them. With doing this, this would help with us ending overcrowding of prison because we have them out there and being around people. Mclean county and Illinois are working together to cut down on the warranted disparities in our system that we have. Now this is a big thing if it could happen, but we will have to see. They are going to try and let the judge tell when there enough people in the system and they are going to let them give them less of a penalty, so we are not overcrowding our prisons. With them trying to do this they will let people with like little drug charges stay on the street, so they can help out there family and don’t have to worry about going away. If we could do this it would save tax payers 1.3 billion dollars a years to help provide essential needs to the inmates this would be the best and help out a lot with be the worst state to live in. gator789
ReplyDeleteThe Illinois Goal is to get at least twenty-five percent of cutting off prison rolls by 2025. Tax payers pay over 1.3 billion yearly for cells, food, medical care, and other services. The place where they decide if you were to go to Prison is at the local Criminal justice system. That’s also the main Focus is on collaboration policies to have a better state. 2011 was the year they began criminal justice coordinator counseling(CJCC) at central Illinois McLean County, where the jails where overfilled. According to Mike Emery who admitted of new policies of the unpleasant number of prisoners. I feel that The best of the five Illinois communities is McLean county is the best local criminal justice council. It has been seven years and it still doing good. For example if they cut the prison sentences in half it could stop the overfilling of prisoners. Most of these prisoners are are arrested for drug use it would help if they went to rehab programs so their would not be overcrowded. I believe that people who are imprisoned for smaller crimes should have lesser sentencing, so we could decrease the amount of population in prisons. Also, people who break their probations, for smaller crimes should have lesser supervised probations, because the longer a probation is the more likely a person that is on probation breaks it. The National criminal justice Association (NCJA) that are focused on the governors and state legislatures that had controlled over the amount of years you are prisoners, is not a bad thing about this because Illinois reforms was the first three is chosen on the project that was presenter by the National Governor and national criminal justice association. Once state such as Illinois supports and partners with local entities to addresses crimes and strengthen Public Safety.
ReplyDelete-justice789