Chicago DUI lawyer says looks like MADD has Governor Quinn on the ropes

This Chicago DUI lawyer has posted here, here, and here about Illinois sentencing. Now comes news that MADD just sucker punched the governor by deeming DUI convicts just as violent as those that literally sucker punched, raped, or killed.

December 25, Chicago, Il

Anti-drunken driving advocates reacted angrily earlier this week when the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that Gov. Quinn's administration had released 18 felony drunken drivers from prison early to serve the rest of their prison time on home confinement.

On Thursday, those same anti-DUI advocates were cheering after the governor ordered all 18 back behind bars to serve the remainder of their prison time. Each will be paroled between mid-January and mid-October under the terms of their original sentences.

MADD officials said repeat DUI offenders should have been considered violent. After reviewing the program, the state Corrections Department agreed.

The 18 DUI offenders were rounded up during the past two days. No more DUI drivers will be eligible for early release.

"A decision was made to eliminate any and all DUI offenders from the electronic-detention program," Corrections Department spokeswoman Januari Smith said.

I bet you want to see who gets to stay out under early release right?

January 7, Naperville, IL

Five men with ties to the Naperville-Aurora area — including a street gang member found guilty of murder conspiracy — were among more than 1,700 Illinois prison inmates recently granted early release under a controversial state program Gov. Pat Quinn has since called a "mistake" and which he has ordered discontinued.

Also freed under the program were 20 other criminals from throughout Illinois with murder or attempted murder in their backgrounds, records showed. Six were convicted of murder, five of second-degree murder, one of manslaughter, one of murder conspiracy and seven of attempted murder.

Under the now-scuttled program — called "MGT-Push" or "accelerated meritorious good time" — inmates' past crimes were not factors in determining their eligibility for early release. By law, Quinn's corrections chief, Michael Randle, considered only the offenses for which inmates were currently in prison, officials said Tuesday.

During a news conference last week, neither Quinn nor Randle pointed out the degree to which people with murder, armed robbery, rape and other convictions for violent crimes had been released under the program. The issue is expected to remain front-and-center as Quinn and Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, his opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, head into the Feb. 2 election.

Does anyone else at MADD want to tell Governor Quinn why the DUI convicts were sent back to prison but not the folks convicted of murder?