Schimpf Calls for the Full Reopening of the Dept. of Corrections

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By Paul Schimpf for Governor

Jun 23, 2021

issued the following announcement on June 21

Paul Schimpf, Republican candidate for Governor of Illinois, issued a statement this morning from the Monroe County jail along with Sheriffs Neil Rohlfing of Monroe County and Shannon Wolff of Randolph County in response to the failure of the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) to take custody of DOC prisoners as required under Executive Order 2020-50 issued on July 27, 2020.

Executive Order 2020-50 mandates the DOC to determine the scheduling of arrivals of inmates from county jails based on the several health and safety factors. It further ordered that the DOC work closely with county sheriffs to implement this process. At this time, inmates are not being regularly transferred from county jails to the DOC despite the fact that Illinois is finally in Stage 5 and those health and safety factors conditions have been met. Furthermore, the DOC has failed to compensate the individual counties for the state prisoners who are being held in county jails. Lastly, according to the President of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, Sheriff Brian VanVickle of Ogle County, the DOC has failed to communicate with county sheriffs to solve this problem. In response to these conditions, Senator Schimpf stated:

“Once again, we are witnessing the ‘Pritzker Leadership Deficit’ as Governor Pritzker remains hands off when it comes to providing solutions to the problems caused by his unilateral shutdown of our state.

It is only by the strong leadership of our 102 sheriffs across Illinois that our communities and citizens remain safe from DOC prisoners even though they are not obligated to house them without recompense. Unfortunately, the taxpayers of each county are left to foot the bill despite the fact that the DOC budget has not been cut during the pandemic. This is simply unacceptable.

I call on Governor Pritzker to order the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections to reopen and start transferring prisoners in a safe and regular fashion, to pay each county the DOC’s arrears for housing prisoners, and pay counties the cost of housing those DOC inmates in the future.”

About Paul Schimpf: Paul Schimpf served as a State Senator for the 58th Senate District, was the Minority Spokesperson for the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and, during his time as an active-duty Marine Corps officer, was the chief American attorney advisor to Iraqi prosecutors in the trial of Saddam Hussein. For more information on Senator Schimpf, please visit Schimpf4Illinois.com.