Rob Jeffreys | illinois.gov
Rob Jeffreys | illinois.gov
Rob Jeffreys appeared before the Senate Executive Appointments Committee on Monday for his confirmation as secretary of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Sens. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) and Steve McClure (R-Jacksonville) expressed appreciation for his his work performance before asking him some questions.
“You have an extremely tough job and I appreciate what you’re doing but I have concerns with public safety,” McClure said. “We’ve seen a lot of prisoners being released. In Springfield alone we’ve seen a 40% increase in shootings, in Chicago, we’ve seen a 33% increase in murders and 43% in shootings. Do we have any studies on what this rise in crime has been attributed to? Are you aware of anything?”
Jeffreys said he’s not aware of the released population being connected to crimes.
“We’ve done some good work together, but I’d like to ask about work release centers,” Bryant said. “There are zero work release centers for women outside of the Chicago area and zero work release centers of anyone south of Peoria. I’ve been a big advocate for those. The skills they represent are very important. I’m disturbed why we don’t have a work release center in Southern Illinois."
The nationally recognized criminal justice expert said they were working on this pre-COVID but the initiative has since been put on the back burner. He also explained that they were able to reduce the female population by 43%.
Jeffreys spent 21 of his 24 years in corrections management at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
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