Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Wednesday he would convene a commission to look at criminal justice policy.
State prisons in Illinois are at 150 percent of the capacity they were built to house. They also cost taxpayers $1.3 billion a year. And many inmates, once released, go on to commit more crimes. Rauner says that’s unacceptable.
"It is a vicious and costly cycle," Rauner says. "We need to make sure we are rehabilitating inmates, so they don’t commit crimes over and over again."
To that end, he’s handpicking a task force to study the issue. With that, he’s not breaking new ground — Senate President John Cullerton announced a similar, bipartisan effort last month. And yet another group of lawmakers looked at some of these same issues last year.
Rauner wants a report from his commission by the end of 2015.
