The political drama that ended the Hispanic Democratic Organization's grip on city hiring ended yesterday, with the sentencing of long-time HDO chief and former Streets and San commissioner Al Sanchez, who was convicted of four counts of mail fraud last year. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman handed down a sentence of 2-1/2 years in federal prison for Sanchez. But he didn't go quietly. more ›

For months, attorneys for former Governor George Ryan have argued for his release from prison so that he can be by his ill wife, Lura Lynn. Today, Ryan's attorneys filed a motion with medical records to back that up. more ›

We can't even begin to imagine how the family of Andrea Faye Will is feeling after they received the news that Justin Boulay, who was convicted of murdering Will in 1998, is being paroled and leaves prison tomorrow for Hawaii, where his wife is a college professor. more ›

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady called for Illinois Corrections chief Michael Randle’s resignation over the weekend after details were released about the controversial Meritorious Good Time Push program. MGT Push was designed to save tax dollars by early releasing non-violent inmates from prison. It was shut down in December of 2009 when the Governor learned that violent offenders were released on the program as well. The report, issued by former Appellate Court Justice David Erikson blamed an outdated IT infrastructure for the error. The Tribune reports Brady said at a press conference “I believe the highest obligation of any governor is to protect the interests of the public, the public safety. By allowing these releases to occur, Gov. Quinn failed to meet this obligation.” He went on to call MGT Push “one of the greatest lapses in public safety in recent history” and asked how Randle still has a job. Quinn responded by stating that though he recognized Randle made an error in judgment, he was not going to fire him. more ›

If, like us, the last fifteen or so times you've caught The Blues Brothers, it was on some random weekend afternoon on WGN and riddled with commercial breaks, and your appreciation for the classic could probably use a fresh perspective. So why not head to The Old Joliet Prison and watch it the way Jake and Elwood would have wanted you to? more ›

Illinois prisons have 40,000 offenders entering and leaving each year, exceeding rated capacity. However, there has been a slight decrease in repeat offenders coming back into the system. The recidivism rate in 2009 was 51.3 percent, down from 54.4 in 2003, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections annual report. One of the reasons has been Illinois’ commitment to criminal rehabilitation. The Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009 setup rehabilitation programs with the help of $6 million in federal stimulus funds. more ›

Tomorrow, the House is scheduled to mark up H.R. 5136, the Military Construction Authorization Act for FY 2011. Inside the budget request lies a $350 million “transfer” fund which allows the Obama administration all the provisions it needs to close Guantanamo Bay. It also includes the purchase of the fiercely debated prison in Thomson, Illinois. more ›

One inmate has learned the hard way that once you go behind bars, there's no Dungeons & Dragons to play in your future. Kevin T. Singer had filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin's Waupun prison claiming the prison's ban on role playing games violated his First Amendment rights. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that the policy was reasonable. The ban was put in place in 2004 after fears were raised about possible gang activity surrounding Singer and three other inmates who played the game. The Sun-Times explains: more ›

Recently, The Associated Press learned about a secret change in policy by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's prison system that has repeat drunk drivers, drug users, and people convicted of battery and weapons violations serving less than three weeks' time behind bars. Records analyzed by the AP show that 850 inmates since September have been released weeks earlier than they ordinarily would be in a new practice called "MGT Push," or "meritorious good time." It turns out the prison system is saving money by ignoring a policy that requires inmates to serve at least 61 days and is instead awarding them discretionary good-conduct credit as soon as they enter prison, which means some prisoners have enough good-conduct days to be released almost immediately. more ›

A rural Illinois prison has gained federal attention as a potential new site to "house suspected terrorists currently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," according to the Tribune in an exclusive report. more ›

Inmates at Cook County Jail's oldest maximum-security prison often resort to using toothpaste caps and toilet paper to jam their jail cell doors and sneak out, but recently it seems the old locks on the doors have rendered their extra efforts unnecessary. "Some of them are so bad they can literally slide the door, give the door a little jiggle, and it will slide open," a Cook County sheriff's correctional officer said to the Chicago Sun-Times. According to an investigation conducted by the Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association, there have been at least 288 problems with cell doors in the 608-cell prison called Division 1, between February 2007 and last May. more ›

A couple eager to welcome their recently paroled son home from prison were found shot to death in their basement Saturday morning, Chicago Breaking News reports. more ›

When a race horse’s career is over there are few options: euthanize, slaughter or rescue. A new resolution introduced into the Illinois House late last month hopes to do more than save the retired equines -- it hopes to give inmates a chance to learn caretaking skills and compassion for the animals. more ›

American journalist - and Medill graduate - Roxana Saberi has been freed from an Iranian prison after an appeals court overturned her eight-year sentence for allegedly spying on Iran for the U.S. Saberi, a 32-year-old American-Iranian national, graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in 1999 and has been in Iran for six years, covering stories for outlets such as NPR and the BBC. Saberi's father, Reza, who lives in Fargo, North Dakota where Roxana grew up, is in Iran to bring her back home, telling the Associated Press, "In the next few days, we will make travel plans to return home." more ›

In a city where a bump leads to a dead innocent teenager, nothing surprises us anymore. Including a prison beating death that stemmed from a name-calling, which happened last year at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center. Prosecutors in the case of the beating death of inmate Jason Katz claim that Jason Tolen, another inmate, beat Katz to death in March 2008 after Katz called Tolen a "snitch."

Jason Katz and other inmates began teasing Jason Tolen for "snitching" to guards about another inmate's "access to laundry items," prosecutors said in court papers this week. Tolen dared Katz to call him a snitch again, authorities said. It's unclear whether Katz responded, but Tolen walked across the room and punched Katz in the head about 20 times, causing a massive brain hemorrhage and immediate death, according to prosecutors.

Aldermen approved a measure today towards allowing some felons to operate massage parlors. While anyone convicted of a sex crime would still not be eligible for a massage license, those convicted of other felonies who could prove they'd been rehabilitated would be. [WBBM] more ›

Cook County inmates are often sent to prisons in other counties—not because of overcrowding, but to maintain prison safety, according to a Cook County sheriff's spokesman. more ›

Of all the causes to get behind, it’s not often we hear about activists fighting for prisoners’ rights. But that’s the purpose of The Sewing Rebellion’s + Tamms Year Ten event, taking place this Sunday. more ›

deplorable. more ›

). Even less fun is rotting away in a cell for almost 26 years for a crime you didn’t commit. Now imagine that the key to your freedom was sitting the entire time locked in a box in a lawyer’s office, who couldn’t reveal it due to attorney-client privilege. That’s exactly what happened to Alton Logan. Logan, now age 54, was arrested in 1982 for the murder of a security guard at a south side McDonald’s in a robbery gone wrong. He was identified by witnesses along with Edgar Hope. A few days later, as police were hunting down Andrew and Jackie Wilson for an unrelated murder of two officers, a raid on Andrew’s suspected hiding place turned up a shotgun that tested positive as the gun used in the McDonald’s shooting. But since only two men were involved in the robbery and police conveniently had two men already in custody, charges were never filed against Andrew Wilson in that case. You might remember Wilson -- his allegations of being tortured by Jon Burge and two detectives started the snowball that led to Burge’s firing and a $1 million award by the court. But the plot twists even further -- public defenders Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz, representing Wilson in the police shooting, received word that Hope was claiming Logan had nothing to do with the McDonald’s murder, and was pointing the finger at Wilson. When Coventry and Kunz confronted Wilson he admitted to being the trigger man. Wilson agreed to allow the lawyers to prepare a notarized affidavit of his confession, but it could only be revealed after his death. The affidavit has sat sealed in a metal box in Coventry’s office ever since. Andrew Wilson just died in November of last year -- Coventry and Kunz have now come forward with the new information, and Logan’s attorney is motioning for a new trial. Logan’s case is an example of how our justice system is for the most part effective, but far from perfect. The evidence to help exonerate someone in prison is just sitting around next to back issues of the , and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Even if Coventry and Kunz didn’t care about reprimands and losing their license for breaking the attorney-client privilege, because of that privilege the affidavit would be inadmissible, anyway. At least that’s our hope, as the thought of these two men sacrificing Logan just for the sake of their careers is unfathomable. Can any of our law degree toting readers confirm this? [Trib] more ›

In November we took a look at La-Van Hawkins, a Chicago-born restaurateur who made a fortune in fast food franchises. Hawkins was planning on opening a slew of Nancy's Pizza and Al's Italian Beef franchises on the South Side even as he was waiting to be sentenced to 33 months in prison on corruption charges. more ›

A report released today from the Justice Policy Institute compares drug imprisonment statistics for big counties and concludes that everything is messed up. Granted, the Institutes's slogan is "dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration," but the report is still fascinating and surprisingly easy to read. Cook County has the ninth highest rate of admission to prison for drug offenses, with 166 out of every 100,000 people going to prison for a drug offense. But... more ›

George Ryan starts his prison sentence today, and the Sun-Times and Trib have helpfully chronicled every move the former governor has made since last night. You know what that means: time for a Ryan Round Up! Olé! Yesterday, the 73-year-old released this statement to the public, again claiming innocence and thanking his family and legal team. At 5:50 this morning, Ryan left his home in Kankakee in a van driven by his son, George Ryan... more ›