One of the goals I have for McHenry County Blog is to create a record of things political in our area. If a politician makes a promise, I hope that McHenry County Blog can be a place where you can find it.

McHenry County Blog published copies of every campaign piece for the 8th congressional district primary and general elections, for instance. Those and other campaign pieces can be found by typing the name of a candidate in the search engine at the top of the page.

In any race in which a challenger runs against an incumbent, the incumbent tries to outline his or her accomplishments at the beginning of the race. Future goals may also be outlined.

McHenry County State’s Attorney did that when he announced for re-election this past spring. Recently, I received what may be an updated version. You can read it below:

Lou Bianchi’s Accomplishments During the First Two Years

Tough on Crime
The office has taken a tougher stand on crime which has led to an increase in the number of trials resulting in harsher sentences and penitentiary time for offenders.

Check Enforcement Program
Passing a Bad check is a crime. On February 19, 2007 the Check Enforcement Program was established and is administrated by in-house lawyers, investigators and legal administrative specialists. Previously, the program was administered by ACCS, a California company with its only presence in the community being a P.O. Box and a bank of telemarketers. The outsourcing of this program made criminal enforcement almost impossible. This new program is based on a one- to- one, direct contact with businessmen in McHenry County.

Mental Health Court
On April 5, 2007, a Mental Health Court, spearheaded by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, will be instituted to keep those suffering from mental illness from criminal prosecution and habitual incarceration.

Millions of Saved Tax Payer Money .
Civil lawsuits, those filed by or against the County are now handled by staff attorneys, rather than outside counsel. Previously, monies paid for representation for these matters was close to one million dollars annually.

Future Goals

First Offender Program
This program is also known as a “Second Chance Diversion” program. We have been harder on crime. At the same time there are certain individuals who made a mistake—first offenders–who deserve a second chance. This does not mean that perpetrators are given a free pass. Rather, they are put through the “justice system” in an informal way, by-passing the court, but processed through our office and monitored by court services (probation department). Rehabilitation is part of the program. After assessment, a reasonably conclusion must be that the perpetrator will not violate the law in the future. They will likely face similar consequences normally presented in court, pay fines, report to probation or someone who will monitor their behavior and perform community service. However they will not go through the courts in the traditional way. They will be diverted around the court system. This should accomplish two goals:

• After a monitoring period to be reasonably certain that they have corrected any misbehavior, the charges will be dropped and they will not have a record.
• Cut down on the case load in the courts

Drug Court
Establish a specialized court, similar to the newly formed “mental health” court. This court will deal with the unique problems associated with drug addiction.

Special prosecution unit
Two experienced attorneys will be assigned the larger, complex, higher profile cases, involving more serious crimes and/or complicated evidentiary issues. Each lawyer will be assigned to one of the Felony courtrooms.