Supervised release in Illinois
The op-ed “Denying access to parole hurts the health of communities” (March 23) is filled with many partial truths and misleading information. Most people will take it at face value and believe that incarcerated individuals have no recourse to attain early release from prison unless the governor grants clemency.
This information would come as quite a surprise to the Illinois Department of Corrections’ Parole Division, as its members diligently supervise the more than 20,000 citizens who are in the mandatory supervised release program, formerly known as parole.
While parole was replaced by mandatory supervised release in 1978, very little changed before 1998. In fact, between 1978 and 1998, even those convicted of first-degree murder were often serving less than 50% of their sentences. In 1998, Illinois passed the Truth in Sentencing Statute, which stopped the practice of early release for those convicted of first-degree murder. The offense of terrorism later was added to this category.
Some felons in Illinois are forced to serve most of their sentence because of the severity of their crimes. However, the majority of inmates are eligible for mandatory supervised release after serving 50% of their sentences.
The op-ed implies that Illinois prisoners are unable to seek supervised release before they serve the entirety of their sentences. This is patently not true. While the prison system is in desperate need of reform, improved health services and better educational opportunities, our elected officials are seemingly eager to push ill-prepared individuals back out into the community while they wash their hands of all responsibility for what happens after.
While I sympathize with the families of those incarcerated, it is important to realize that most individuals who are imprisoned will not serve long sentences. In fact, according to a March 2021 U.S. Department of Justice report, two-thirds of offenders released from state prisons in 2018 served less than two years in prison, and the average time served by state prisoners released in 2018 was 2.7 years.
This is why I felt it was necessary to clarify the details that were so obviously lacking in India Hilty’s op-ed. It is important that we each take responsibility for examining the information we are exposed to, ferreting out the entire story.
— Ramona Paravola, community organizer, Chicago