A Republican-initiated panel investigating a secret and controversial prisoner early release program turned into a bipartisan inquiry when three Democrat legislators joined the GOP panel in Peoria.

The Illinois Joint Investigatory Panel on Early Release held its first meeting Wednesday evening, August 11, in Peoria.  Republican senators Dale Risinger (Peoria) and Tim Bivins (Dixon) were joined by committee Co-Chair Representative Dennis Reboletti (R-Elmhurst), Representatives David Leitch (R-Peoria), Jim Durkin (R-Countryside), Jil Tracy (R-Quincy), and fellow lawmakers Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria), Rep. Jehan Gordon (D-Peoria), Rep. Keith Sommer (R-Morton) and Rep. Mike Smith (D-Canton).

The panel selected Peoria, in part, because of the murder of a Peoria grandmother in May. The man accused of the crime had been a prisoner and participant in the controversial Meritorious Good Time-Push (MGT-Push) program.

The panel first offered a brief review of the history of the controversy, and recounted efforts dating back to January to obtain information about the ill-fated program. Although in December 2009 Quinn appointed former Judge David Erickson of the Cook County Circuit Court to conduct a review of release practices, that report still has not been released eight months later.

Sen. Risinger questioned why the report has not yet been released, noting the report would give officials a better understanding of, “what went wrong, why did it happen, how can we make corrections to it, how can we work forward and work through it.”

Among those testifying were local police and sheriffs, along with several crime victims and crime victim advocacy groups. All participants expressed concern over the implementation of the early release program, and urged officials to be more discriminatory when deciding which prisoners will receive early release.

“In Peoria County, we right now have over 500 paroled people in our area,” said Peoria County Sheriff Michael McCoy. “We don’t know how many of them have been on the MGT records, we don’t know who they are, we don’t know where they live, or where they came from.When people are released early from prison and we don’t know they’re out, that greatly hinders our investigations.”

“When a victim hears a sentence, they assume a certain piece of mind for that period of time. And a lot of victims lost that earlier this year,” said Terry Mayborne, President of IllinoisVictims.org, a victims’ rights organization.

Though invited to attend, no representatives from the Quinn Administration nor the Department of Corrections were present.

“We appreciate the bipartisan participation in this panel. It’s significant because it shows that the issue and concern crosses party lines,” Radogno said. “I hope that moving forward, Gov. Quinn will encourage his staff to cooperate and fully participate in future hearings.”

The MGT-Push program was an initiative of the Quinn Administration. Initially, the Administration announced plans to release 1,000 non-violent inmates who had less than a year left of their sentences. The program was anticipated to save the state $5 million. It was later revealed in media reports that the Administration had actually implemented two early release programs: one publicized program, and a *secret *MGT Push program, which granted good-time credit to almost 2,000 inmates, including violent offenders.

Once the MGT Push program was made public, the secret program was suspended. However, many questions still surround the implementation of the MGT Push program and who is responsible for the misguided policy.