McHenry County Blog

Take a look at this short Thursday article from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Probation for bringing drugs into prison.

When I was on the Illinois House Prison Reform Committee, I asked every warden why he couldn’t keep drugs out of his prison.

“My constituents don’t understand why you can’t keep drugs out of a prison where you control all the access,” I would point out.

I never got a good answer.

And now, a Cook County Judge has given probation to a Cook County Jail guard for trying to smuggle marijuana into the complex.

With no jail time, you can probably figure out why the reward might outweigh the penalty for prison guards.

The following press release has been issued by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department:

Harvard Man Arrested for Defrauding a Court Ordered Drug

and Alcohol Screen Test

June 3, 2010

Sheriff Keith Nygren announced today the arrest of Salvador Lemus, Jr. for Defrauding a Court Ordered Drug and Alcohol Screening Test.

On June 2, 2010 McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Investigators were contacted by the McHenry County Department of Court Services, Adult Probation Division.

Probation Officers were supervising Salvador providing a urine sample pursuant to a court order from a McHenry County judge.

While providing a urine sample, Salvador was found to be in possession of a bottle of urine that he was attempting to pass as his own.

Salvador was subsequently arrested for falsifying that urine analysis. He was charged with defrauding a drug and alcohol screening test, a Class 4 Felony.

Salvador, a known gang member in the Harvard area, was processed into the McHenry County Jail without incident.

McHenry County Jail

Salvador remains at the McHenry County Jail where his bond will be set by a judge in bond court.

Arrested:
Salvador Lemus Jr., Age 33
207 McComb St.
Harvard, Illinois 60033

When Rod Blagojevich was running for governor in 2002, he promised that Sheridan Correctional Center would stay open.

If memory serves me correctly, Governor George Ryan had it on his closure list in his efforts to save the state money.

While it could have been turned into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for the Chicago metropolitan area, instead of trying for that alternative use, Blagojevich turned it into a drug treatment center for convicts.

A couple of years later I heard a rumor that parole agents were being discouraged from discovering violations by those paroled from Sheridan.

If parolees weren’t sent back to prison, the drug treatment program would be a success, right?

Now that we have a new governor, I wonder if anyone has figured out what was rumored is happening and, if it is, whether parole agents have been freed to do the job for which Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart worked so hard to get hired when he was a state representative.

The article you see reminded me of the rumor.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Note that Chicago Tribune David Mendell reporter says the yard stick being used to measure success is the percentage of those on probation arrested.

The rumor mill says that parole agents have been advised not to find prisoners who go through Sheridan’s program in violation of their probation.

I don’t know if that is accurate, but, if it is, the reporter might find a different perspective.

“…total arrests of parolees had fallen 23 percent over those three years,” is the official line.

I wonder what anonymous parole officers would say.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Note that Chicago Tribune David Mendell reporter says the yard stick being used to measure success is the percentage of those on probation arrested.

The rumor mill says that parole agents have been advised not to find prisoners who go through Sheridan’s program in violation of their probation.

I don’t know if that is accurate, but, if it is, the reporter might find a different perspective.

“…total arrests of parolees had fallen 23 percent over those three years,” is the official line.

I wonder what anonymous parole officers would say.