SPRINGFIELD (STMW) — Gov. Quinn’s administration fired three top Department of Corrections administrators Friday after repeated calls for a shake-up over the agency’s botched early release of inmates, the Sun-Times is reporting.
Gone are the prison system’s chief of staff, another top assistant to embattled Corrections Director Michael Randle and an administrator who oversaw operations in northern Illinois.
“As of today, executive assistant to the director Sergio Molina, chief of staff Jim Reinhart and Northern Regional Supervisor Jac Charlier are no longer state of Illinois employees,” prisons spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said. “Since this is a personnel issue, the agency cannot comment further.”
Elman declined to say whether the firings were a result of the early-release programs that Quinn aborted when his primary rival, Comptroller Dan Hynes, made them a major campaign issue.
Molina, a longtime employee with the state prison system, said he was not given an explanation for his firing but added that neither he nor his two former colleagues were responsible for the early-release initiatives.
“The director stood with the governor and accepted full responsibility for the early release program, and that’s precisely where the responsibility lies,” Molina told the Sun-Times.
Quinn’s administration released more than 1,700 inmates, hundreds of whom had violent records, after having been imprisoned for as little as three weeks total time under a secretive early-release program known as “MGT Push.” Another 233 non-violent inmates were freed under a separate, early-release program Quinn’s administration publicized.
In January, after Quinn suspended the programs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that one of those released early under “MGT Push” was a west suburban man sentenced to prison for murder conspiracy. Another 20 inmates with killings or attempted murder in their criminal backgrounds were released early under the program.
After the primary, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) expressed surprise that there “hasn’t been some dismissals” in the agency following the early-release debacle. Last week, GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady called on Quinn to fire Randle.
Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.
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