Weeks after two high-profile resignations at the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday appointed the first-ever executive director to help lead the beleaguered agency.
To fill the newly created position, the governor tapped Jim Montgomery, who most recently served as director of administrative services with the Suffolk County Sheriff鈥檚 Department in Massachusetts. His prior experience includes several stints as an assistant to Illinois lawmakers in the 1990s, and eight years as mayor of Taylorville from 1997 until 2005.
Montgomery will be responsible for overseeing administrative board operations, including bolstering domestic violence prevention training and 鈥渙ther important equity-based trainings for board members,鈥� according to the governor鈥檚 office. In a news release, the governor said the creation of the director position 鈥渞educes the workload placed on the PRB chair and allows for the chair to focus more closely on leading casework.鈥�
The board has ultimate say on Montgomery鈥檚 salary, but the governor鈥檚 office said funds are available in the current-year budget and Montgomery will earn $160,000 annually 鈥� more than the board chair鈥檚 roughly $108,000 statutory salary.
The board currently has no chair, as the office鈥檚 previous holder, Donald Shelton, resigned on March 25 along with board member LeAnn Miller.
In February, Miller led a hearing to determine whether an inmate, Crosetti Brand, should be released from Stateville Correctional Center amid allegations that he鈥檇 violated an order of protection against his ex-girlfriend, Laterria Smith, by threatening her. The board found insufficient evidence and he was released on March 12.
One day later, Brand attacked Smith, stabbing her and killing her eleven-year-old son Jayden Perkins when he tried to intervene.
Pritzker appointed Miller to the Prisoner Review Board in and her term wasn鈥檛 . The governor said earlier this month the resignation 鈥渨as probably a proper decision on her part鈥� and said the panel she led 鈥渄idn't take into consideration enough the domestic violence history of this particular prisoner.鈥�
Shelton had served on the board since 2012 and was appointed as a Republican. Pritzker said Shelton 鈥渟erved admirably鈥� but didn鈥檛 provide a reason for his resignation. Shelton he resigned out of personal responsibility, but he also defended Miller and pushed back against the governor鈥檚 statements about the decision.
The PRB has a proposed head count of 59 employees in the upcoming fiscal year, up from 51 in the current year. Its proposed budget is $5.4 million. Montgomery鈥檚 appointment awaits Senate confirmation.
Migrant response funding
The Chicago鈥檚 City Council鈥檚 budget committee advanced Mayor Brandon Johnson鈥檚 request for $70 million from city reserves to care for new migrant arrivals in a 20-8 vote on Monday.
The motion could go to a full city council vote as soon as this week, and it has the potential to close a gap in migrant aid funding and fulfill the city鈥檚 commitment to an agreement with the state and Cook County.
The proposal comes two months after Cook County officials and the governor鈥檚 office committed about $250 million toward aid for recently arrived migrants. The leaders at the time said another $70 million was still needed.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, announced the state would receive about $19.3 million in migrant response funding from a new .
Council members who voted for and against the city鈥檚 motion called the nearly $20 million in federal aid 鈥渨holly inadequate.鈥�
Alderman Daniel La Spata, of Chicago鈥檚 1 st Ward, pointed to how federal officials were quick to start programs for Ukrainian and Afghan asylum seekers but not to the same degree for those arriving to the U.S. from Latin American countries.
鈥淲e've seen still harsh contrast to how we treated the 30,000 plus Ukrainians who arrived similarly with asylum seeker status, who were able to incorporate themselves into Chicago and Illinois,鈥� La Spata said.
Medical debt relief
Earlier in the day, Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle continued to push their plans to eliminate almost $1 billion of medical debt owned by Illinoisians with $10 million from the governor鈥檚 proposed budget.
Preckwinkle previously utilized federal funds from the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act to fund the Cook County Medical Debt Relief Initiative in 2022, on which the state plan is modeled.
The governor highlighted the problem of medical debt as 鈥渁 uniquely American issue.鈥�
鈥淚n Illinois, 14 percent of our population has medical debt in default,鈥� Pritzker said. 鈥淪o far, Cook County has abolished more than $348 million in medical debt for over 200,000 Cook County residents.鈥�
The $348 million of debt relief came on an investment of about $3.75 million dollars in ARPA money due to a partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, formerly known as RIP Medical Debt, records show.
Undue Medical Debt buys up medical debt and frees patients from the burden of years-old medical bills they cannot afford to pay. Since it buys debt from entities such as collection agencies for cents on the dollar, it can turn $1 donated into about $100 in debt relief.
Those selected to have their medical debt wiped are determined by the nonprofit鈥檚 analysis of hospital debt records.
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