Metro East Sun

State Sen. Steve McClure (R-Jacksonville) argues Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the Prisoner Review Board (PRB) has proven to be a way of revictimizing some individuals all over again.

“The fact that [the PRB] cannot put themselves in the victim’s shoes, and they’re only concerned about what it’s like to be the prisoner — who’s a murderer, who’s a rapist — is absolutely backwards. Insane,” McClure told Breitbart News. “They don’t have empathy for the victims, or they don’t feel like the victim should have justice. Facts don’t matter. People get killed and families don’t get justice.”

McClure is among the Republican lawmakers who place much of the blame at the feet of Pritzker and the way he has handled PRB business over the last two years, including using whatever loopholes he could to bypass the standard appointee process for the board to install his own hand-picked choices. Breitbart reports one of the newest board members is a man convicted of a double homicide.

Among the string of controversial early releases, the family of Montral Fleming claims his killer, Tewkunzi Green, was released from prison 22 years early when Pritzker signed a “commutation of sentencing order” without so much as notifying the victim’s family.

Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) has had enough. The veteran lawmaker’s office is now working on legislation that would close all the notification loopholes and make it a crime if the families of victims are not alerted.

Bryant said while the governor’s office is “making sure that criminals are treated fairly…they seem to have absolutely no care at all the victims' families are treated fairly.”