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Jayden Perkins’ death shines a tragic spotlight on Prisoner Review Board

Editorial: Republicans are right to call out failings of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Illinois Prisoner Review Board

The horrifying case of Crosetti Brand has surfaced an issue that’s been percolating in Springfield for four years: the performance of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.

The state body, comprising up to 15 members and by law required to include representatives of both parties, is responsible (among other things) for the critical job of deciding whether and when criminals should be paroled. It was the Prisoner Review Board that ruled last month it couldn’t continue to hold Brand when he clearly committed acts that should have been deemed parole violations and should have returned him to prison. Brand was initially paroled late last year after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for home invasion and aggravated battery involving an ex-girlfriend.

After the board decided it lacked evidence to continue holding him despite his threats early this year to a different woman he had dated more than a decade before, he was released and the following day attacked her, according to police and prosecutors. Her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins, was killed on March 13 trying to defend his 33-year-old pregnant mother, who was badly injured but survived.

. . .

But the issue of the board and how it’s operated under Pritzker is far from settled. Senate Republicans who sounded the alarm for years on questionable parole decisions (well before the Crosetti Brand fiasco) now are proposing wide-ranging legislation to reform the board and to increase penalties for violations of orders of protection in domestic situations. Among other things, the bill would require more stringent qualifications for board members, who are paid nearly $100,000 a year.

“We have been raising red flags,” state Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said Tuesday at a news conference to unveil the bill. “We have been warning about the lack of qualifications of some of the governor’s appointees for years. Literally years. . I don’t know why it’s taken a dead child for people to recognize some of these people are not qualified to serve on the board.”

Plummer, the top Senate Republican on the Executive Appointments Committee, said the board under Pritzker has been more than twice as likely to parole convicts, including murderers, than the past three governors, including two Democrats.

Those parolees include some notorious examples such as Chester Weger – the so-called Starved Rock Killer, convicted of the 1960 murder of three women out for a hike – who was released in 2020 at age 83. Another was the 2021 release of Johnny Veal, who along with a second man was convicted of killing two Chicago police officers in 1970. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, generally sympathetic to restorative-justice and rehabilitation arguments, opposed Veal’s parole, describing the cop killings as “cold-blooded executions” and adding that Veal boasted about it.

Yet another was Ray Larsen, given a 100-to-300-year sentence for murdering a 16-year-old fishing in a forest preserve in 1972. The board moved to release him in 2021, and Larsen immediately violated parole and was a fugitive for a week before authorities caught up with him at a local hospital. While Larsen was unaccounted for, Foxx’s office warned surviving family members of Frank Casolari, Larsen’s victim, since Larsen previously had threatened to harm family members, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, the Prisoner Review Board voted 12-0 to deny Larsen parole. Under Pritzker, the board granted Larsen’s release on a 9-3 vote.

Republicans in Springfield often struggle to be heard, since Democrats enjoy overwhelming majorities in both legislative chambers. But they’ve been right to call out the governor on the failures of the Prisoner Review Board, and Democrats in the capital should have heeded their warnings far earlier.

Like it or not, Pritzker bears part of the responsibility for the nightmare Jayden Perkins’ family has endured. Many of his Prisoner Review Board appointees have reflected a philosophy emphasizing criminal rehabilitation over victims’ concerns, and the board’s decisions have followed suit.

We hope it goes without saying that Democrats must engage honestly with Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, says he’ll review the GOP proposal. Hopefully, that review won’t be just cursory. If Republicans’ proposal to require a minimum 20 years of consecutive experience in the criminal justice system isn’t the right prescription, Democrats need to negotiate a set of qualifications to reassure the public that board members won’t be more sympathetic to criminals than to victims.

Associated Press | April 2, 2024

https://apnews.com/article/domestic-violence-parole-prisoner-review-board-pritzker-ca95835e5555a8a8f38f2bdbd608e356

The Illinois Senate’s minority leader proposed legislation Tuesday to overhaul Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board after it released a convicted domestic abuser who then attacked a pregnant Chicago woman with a knife and fatally stabbed her 11-year-old son.

Republican Leader John Curran criticized Pritzker and said he plans legislation to require that board appointees have 20 years of criminal justice experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney, probation officer or judge, and that each member undergo annual training on domestic violence and sexual assault and the warning signs that precede repeat attacks.

Other proposed measures would require advance notice to victims of board decisions to release perpetrators and more transparency on the members’ deliberations in each case, including how they voted.

“For too long, these $100,000-a-year positions at the Prisoner Review Board have been given to political appointees who don’t have the requisite experience to make these life-and-death decisions,” Curran, who’s from the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, told reporters in a teleconference. “We must take politics out of the appointment process to create a qualified board with a deep understanding of the criminal justice system.”

Pritzker has acknowledged the parole board didn’t sufficiently consider evidence in releasing 37-year-old Crosetti Brand on March 12. The next day, Brand allegedly broke into the apartment of Laterria Smith, 33, who had an order of protection against him, attacked her with a knife and killed her son Jayden Perkins when he intervened to protect his mother.

. . .

Curran and his colleagues, Sens. Jason Plummer of Edwardsville and Steve McClure of Springfield, parried questions about whether Senate Democrats, who hold a supermajority, would entertain their plans.

“We’ve been warning about the lack of qualifications of some of the governor’s appointees for years,” Plummer said. “I don’t know why it’s taken a dead child for people to finally recognize some of these people are not qualified to serve on the board. My Democratic colleagues have largely taken a step back and allowed the governor’s office to drive the train.”

. . .

“I would hope that the Democrats in the Senate now realize that Gov. Pritzker has a policy of trying to get the most far-left, anti-victim people on the Prisoner Review Board,” McClure added. “My hope is that moving forward, the Democrats have learned their lesson.”

CHICAGO — Today, ILGOP Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement responding to the Democratic nominee Cook County state’s attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke’s statement that she isn’t tough on crime: 

“Eileen O’Neill Burke campaigned in the Democratic primary as a genuine tough on crime States Attorney who will actually prosecute criminals and not coddle, defend or make excuses for them like Kim Foxx does. Now, Burke is flipping her stance and pandering to soft-on-crime Democrats that have made Chicago a beacon of crime. There is only one choice for voters looking for someone who will be tough-on-crime and clean Cook County up – Bob Fioretti.”

CHICAGO — Republicans are fighting across the state to make our communities safer, something Gov. Pritzker has simply failed to do. After multiple resignations on the state’s Parole Review Board, Republicans like Sen. Jason Plummer are fighting to depoliticize the process.

Take a look at the coverage from Center Square:

“He has politicized the process and he has tried to ram unqualified appointees through the Senate. When the Senate has objected, he has not worked with us,” Plummer told The Center Square. “This tragic event that happened is a perfect example of what we warned the governor would happen if he continued down this reckless path that he’s been dead set on following since he took office when it comes to the PRB.”
…Max Cerda, another board member, was convicted of a double murder when he was 16 years old and was appointed by Pritzker in March 2021.

“Historically, if you look at the PRB, under [former governors] Blagojevich, Quinn and Rauner, the voting under the PRB, the voting stayed relatively consistent,” said Plummer. “Under Pritzker, he started withholding some of the appointees and not allowing them to go before the Senate for confirmation. We noticed the voting patterns on the PRB changed dramatically. They were letting people out at a much more aggressive pace and at a higher rate. When we started asking questions about votes that were cast, questions about the appointees, Pritzker started playing games.”

Cerda, while on the PRB, voted to let out a convicted cop killer whom Cerda actually served time with in prison.

Another controversial appointee of Pritzker’s was Oreal James, who Plummer said voted to release multiple cop killers.
…After Miller and Shelton resigned Monday, Pritzker said he’s committed to ensuring additional safeguards and training are in place to prevent tragedies like this week’s from happening again.

“If you want tragedies like this to not happen again, you can’t let people like Pritzker appoint unqualified people to this board,” said Plummer.

CHICAGO — Freshman Democrat Eric Sorenson has come under scrutiny for hosting a drag event for kids in his battleground western Illinois district. Take a look at some of the coverage of the latest uncovered video from Fox News:

Fox News: Freshman Dem in battleground district says he has ‘no’ regrets hosting drag events for kids
A Democratic congressman in an Illinois battleground district said he has no regrets about hosting drag shows for children after years of promoting drag events on social media.

“No,” Rep. Eric Sorensen said in a recent video obtained by Fox News Digital when asked if he regrets hosting drag shows for children.

Earlier this month, popular social media account Libs of TikTok posted previous photos of Sorensen both dressed in drag and hosting a drag show for children in Illinois in 2021, which was viewed hundreds of thousands of times since it was posted on March 11.

…Last year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a list of Democratic incumbents most vulnerable in the 2024 election cycle as they work to retain their seats in a Republican-controlled House.

Sorensen was listed among 28 other House Democrats deemed vulnerable by the party this year.

…In comment to Fox News Digital, the National Republican Congressional Committee called Sorensen a “far-left radical” representing rural Illinois.

“Eric Sorensen is a far-left radical who would be more at home representing San Francisco than rural Illinois. His actions are outrageous, and he clearly has no remorse,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Sorensen’s campaign and press secretary for comment on his support for drag shows, including for children, but received no replies.

CHICAGO — In Tuesday’s primary, voters in the city of Chicago sent a message that Mayor Johnson’s radical progressive shift in policy is not right for the city. In what is looking like an overwhelming denial, the initiative is currently losing by more than 7% and nearly 23,000 votes. With 80% of the vote in, the margin is nearly insurmountable for Mayor Johnson’s keystone policy proposal.

See what coverage had to say about Chicago voters rejecting the progressive agenda of Illinois Democrats and special interests:

Wall Street Journal Editorial Board: Glimmers of Election Hope in Chicago

Maybe Chicago isn’t fated to a downward progressive spiral after all. On Tuesday voters shocked everyone by soundly rejecting a ballot referendum to raise the city’s real-estate transfer tax, despite active support by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Or perhaps the defeat was because of their support. Chicago residents voted 54% to 46% against the tax scheme with most votes counted. The result is all the more surprising because turnout in the primary was an unusually low 20%. Low turnout typically helps political machines like Chicago’s, which is why they scheduled the tax increase vote for March. They lost anyway.

Chicago Tribune: Bring Chicago Home referendum in serious trouble – and it would be a stinging defeat for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s grassroots base

The referendum was set up to become Johnson’s first levy hike as mayor, after campaigning on a “tax-the-rich” agenda that caught fire last year amid a tumultuous election where he adopted Bring Chicago Home as a key pledge. A defeat would signal trouble for Johnson’s leftist coalition that took over City Hall for the first time in decades but has since faced nonstop resistance from politically moderate foes and business interests, on top of sky-high costs from the migrant crisis.

CBS Chicago: Bring Chicago Home real estate transfer tax referendum appears headed to defeat

Republican political strategist Aaron Del Mar, a former Cook County Republican Party chair, said the referendum’s showed voters have a lack of trust in government to spend tax money wisely.

“I don’t think people trust the Chicago government group, aldermen, mayor, or whatever – to use the money appropriately,” he said.

While the tax might not have affected most homeowners, Del Mar said it was clear voters were not ready for another tax hike, one that would have affected small businesses and many landlords.

“I think they caught too many of the people of Chicago in here, including small business owners. You’re catching landlords that have a three-flat, that’s their whole life investment. I mean a million dollars is certainly a lot of money, but it’s not what it used to be,” he said.

Del Mar said he believes the measure likely would have passed easily if supporters had targeted the tax increase on properties worth $3 million or more, rather than $1 million.

Chicago Sun-Times: Bring Chicago Home: Mayor Johnson’s plan to fight homelessness appears headed to defeat

“Bad policy should be defeated, and voters saw that it was bad policy,” said veteran political strategist Greg Goldner, who quarterbacked the campaign against the referendum.

…”It can’t build affordable housing. It can’t solve homelessness. It can’t provide mental health services. It can’t solve the migrant crisis. It can’t provide affordable housing for teachers and vets. It can’t do all of those things for a revenue stream that has proven to be unpredictable,” he added. In the end, Goldner said, voters agreed the referendum was “poorly constructed, poorly defined” and a “very cynical public policy initiative.”

WGN: ‘Bring Chicago Home’ real estate tax referendum headed toward defeat at the polls

“This ordinance, as it’s written – or this referendum – is really going to impact a lot more renters than people might assume,” said Miguel Chacon, a real estate broker and representative of the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance. “Anything that increases the operating expenses for any property owner, or any business for that matter, is eventually passed down to tenants.”

CHICAGO — The people of Illinois have made their voices heard in our primaries across the state today, and following the results of today’s votes, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement:

“Today’s votes have made it clear that Republicans are energized to elect strong leaders who will fight for us in Springfield and Washington! Together, we can send President Trump back to the White House, reelect our brilliant Congressional delegation including Representative Mike Bost, and secure victories in the Statehouse to bring Governor Pritzker to the negotiating table to rework his radical agenda.

It’s time for Republicans to unify and move forward to build a brighter future for Illinois. Onward to November!”

CHICAGO — Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement following President Trump’s victory in the Illinois primary and his status as the Republican nominee for President of the United States. 

“The Illinois Republican Party congratulates former President Trump for winning our state primary and the Republican nomination for President of these United States. Thank you to the thousands of Republicans who took part in this primary election for voting, volunteering, and making your voices heard. Now is the time to come together as one party, to recruit, encourage and persuade all of our fellow Republicans and independents to re-elect President Trump and end the Biden-Pritzker agenda of open borders, pro-criminal legislation, and taxing-and-spending your family’s hard earned dollars.”

CHICAGO — Following President Biden’s State of the Union address this evening, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following response: 

“President Biden’s address tonight sent a clear message that four years of his presidency is all we can afford. What has the Biden-Pritzker agenda done for Illinois families? A migrant crisis straining the resources of this city and state, emboldened criminals across the country to commit brazen crimes knowing they will likely be let right back onto the streets IF they are caught, and food prices that remain staggeringly high for families. We as Republicans must come together to restore fiscal sanity and safe neighborhoods to our state and country. It is incumbent upon us to elect Republicans up and down the ticket to take back the statehouse, win majorities in Congress, and right the ship for our children and grandchildren. In just 8 months, we can retire Joe Biden and build a better future for our Illinois families!

Dolton, IL – Mayor Tiffany Henyard made headlines this week after blocking a probe into excessive spending on the taxpayer dime, including first class flights to Las Vegas, lavish personal spending, and even cash doled out for a personal police detail despite the village’s relatively small population.  Meanwhile, Dolton’s debts remain unpaid with untold numbers of vendors still owed thousands dating back to at least 2002. Multiple vendors are owed at least 6 figures in unpaid payments.

And when local officials attempted to get to the bottom of where the money is going, how did the mayor respond? She vetoed the proposal to open an inquiry. 

ILGOP Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement:

“Another day, another Illinois Democrat is facing a corruption inquiry. That makes over a dozen during my tenure as Illinois Republican Party Chairman alone, and conveniently for him, Attorney General Kwame Raoul is never involved. Since taking over as Attorney General in 2019, Raoul has avoided every opportunity to take substantive action to address public corruption in what can be described as nothing short of a dereliction of duty. Raoul must show he is willing to take on public corruption or voters should start calling for an Attorney General who will.”