Illinois Valley Times

Sen. Brian W. Stewart (R-Freeport) recently spoke out on the nomination process for the state's prisoner review board.

"Stewart says the Governor should rethink his approach to the process and nominate individuals who would appeal to a bipartisan majority of the Senate," according to a press release on his website. "He says the Senate is more than willing to approve qualified candidates to the PRB who will serve the interests of the people of Illinois."

In the past two weeks, the Illinois Senate has rejected two nominees for the Prisoner Review Board. Even without those rejections, the board's numbers are dwindling, according to a report from WSILTV. One other board member has resigned, and the board, which is supposed to have 15 members, is down to 6.

The Center Square reported on March 29 that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is blaming the Republicans in state government for the situation the PRB is in. "To have Republicans essentially try to tear apart this agency of government, this is what the GQP has been all about, tearing government apart," Pritzker said during an unrelated news conference in Springfield.

The lack of a quorum affects not only cases that have a high profile, but individuals who need to know what their post-prison supervision requirements would be. "Whenever anyone leaves the prison of the Department of Corrections, it's the Prisoner Review Board that sets their supervision conditions. Last year, they did that 12,335 times,' said Jennifer Soble, a representative of the Illinois Prison Project, in an interview with WBEZ Chicago.