An Illinois law was supposed to help people earn time off their sentences, but poor implementation is leaving some locked up
An Illinois law was supposed to help people earn time off their sentences, but poor implementation is leaving some locked up
Hundreds of people in Illinois could be eligible for immediate release if their sentence credits were calculated properly.
[A] new law... gives new credits for participating in education, work, and other programs.
As many as 1,000 people who are still in custody could be eligible for immediate release if they received proper sentence recalculations, according to Alan Mills, executive director of the civil rights law firm Uptown People’s Law Center.
There are inconsistencies in how the law is being applied at different facilities and poor recordkeeping. Meanwhile, a lack of transparency in how prison staff are calculating sentence credits has further complicated efforts by people inside to make sure they are getting appropriate credit for the work and education they’ve completed.