SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A state ethics officer recommended firing two Illinois parole agents accused of leaking information about inmates who had been granted early release from prison, according to a report released Friday. However, both men retired during the long-running investigation before the report was released.
The Office of the Executive Inspector General asserted that Daniel Reardon and James Crane improperly looked up information about the parolees, gave it to The Associated Press and later lied when questioned about the leaks. The inspector recommended firing them for violating department policy and engaging in “unbecoming” behavior.
The investigation was triggered by AP stories in late 2009 and early 2010 about “MGT Push,” a program that quietly accelerated the process of granting time off for good behavior. Some inmates got out after as little as three weeks behind bars — including county jail — and averaged 16 days in prison. The inmates’ offenses included crimes such crimes as battery, weapons charges and aggravated drunken driving.
After the program became public knowledge late in 2009, Gov. Pat Quinn called it a “big mistake” and shut it down. But it became an embarrassment for him when his opponents criticized him for it during the 2010 gubernatorial election, which he ultimately won by the smallest of margins.
At the time it was shut down, the Corrections director apologized for including some violent offenders in the early release. But by then, some parolees were already back in jail for aggravated battery, weapons charges and assault. Information on those offenses is what Reardon and Crane were accused of looking up and giving to the AP.
Reached Friday for comment, Reardon called the leak investigation “more or less a witch hunt” because of the embarrassment to the Quinn administration. He said he was targeted because “I’ve been very critical of this administration and their refusal to issue warrants on people out there committing crimes.”
Crane said he simply hopes the issue “goes away” now that the administration has its report.
In its stories, the AP described its source as “a law enforcement official” familiar with state records.
The report by Inspector General Ricardo Meza asserted that both Reardon and Crane looked up information on specific parolees who were soon after mentioned in stories by the AP. The parolees were not assigned to either man, the report said, so there was no legitimate reason to look up their records on department computers.
Reardon and Crane told investigators they had looked up the parolees to prepare for a meeting with department management about MGT, which stands for meritorious good time. They said they looked up those particular prisoners after getting complaints from other agents or by mistyping an identification number.
In a later meeting, Crane told investigators that he had checked on the prisoners at Reardon’s request and didn’t know what Reardon did with the information.
The inspector general found the men’s accounts “not credible” and “mere pretext.”
Crane, who became a parole officer in 1985, retired during the investigation. Reardon, a parole officer since 1984, retired after the investigation ended but before the Corrections Department could act on the inspector’s recommendation to fire him.
The report said the attorney general would be asked to file an ethics complaint against Reardon and Crane, which could have resulted in fines. The attorney general declined to take action, said Cole Kain, chief of staff for the executive inspector general.
Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said Reardon’s allegation that the investigation was a witch hunt was “completely false” and the report “speaks for itself.”
The Corrections Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Quinn signed legislation Friday that sets new ground rules for any early release program, giving him legislative approval to resume letting non-violent offenders out of the overcrowded prison system.
