By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Reducing sentences for low-level drug offenders is one of many recommendations that a criminal justice commission has produced as a pay to cut Illinois’ prison population 25 percent by 2025.
State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, said that’s something he’d like to see.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Barickman on WJBC.
“Putting someone in prison because they smoked a joint I think is a bad use of our state resources,” Barickman said.
Barickman said he expects many of the panel’s recommendations will get support in the legislature because Republicans see the cost-savings benefit to keeping people out of prison.
“The end result of less people in prison, no risk to the public and less financial costs as a time when we really need to find savings,” Barickman said.
Higher Education
Barickman said if lawmakers are serious about finding money for higher education, the state could streamline its process of buying goods and services.
“There’s a huge bureaucratic process that one has to go through to sign a contract on behalf of a unit of government,” Barickman said. “Our universities tell us that bureaucracy cost them, as a group, hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Barickman said that’s one of several budget-cutting proposals that the Democrats won’t consider. A proposal from Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington. would reduce the state’s number of chief procurement officers and create a pool of pre-approved vendors.
Lawmakers failed to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a measure to fund Monetary Award Program grants and two-year colleges. Barickman said that bill would have simply given ‘rubber’ checks to schools.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
