“Because of the risk of infection from the coronavirus, all law-abiding citizens must stay home for their own protection. Meanwhile, for the same reason, violent criminals must be released from prison.”
There’s a term for the reaction such statements evoke in rational beings: “cognitive dissonance.” As a wise old country codger might say, “It don’t make no sense.”
It don’t, neither.
We and our fellow citizens are being seriously inconvenienced by social distancing, sheltering in place, and lockdowns (to the point of bankruptcy even), and some of us are panicking about catching the disease or dying from the governmental response to it. What better time to release violent criminals and give us all another threat to fret over?
You don’t need a degree in epidemiology – or a lab coat, a stethoscope, and a comforting bedside manner – to know that quarantining is a good way to keep people with contagious diseases from infecting others. Whether or not it’s a good idea to quarantine healthy people is another question.
Still, if you accept the dubious premise of universal quarantines, why on earth would you give a get-out-of-jail-free card to persons who are already quarantined – for our safety, if not for theirs?
You might want to ask Gov. J.B. Pritzker to explain that one to you, ’cause it don’t make no sense to us.
And lest you believe Pritzker is trying to be humane, consider this report from Ohio, where 73 percent of inmates at a state prison-- some 2,000-- tested positive for coronavirus. Not a single one died, providing more evidence that the virus’ lethality has been way overhyped.
More than 700 Illinois inmates have been released early, ostensibly because of the coronavirus. In the last month alone, Pritzker issued at least 17 commutations to felons, including seven convicted murderers, one of whom was Kwayera Jackson, the former Edwardsville High School football player serving a 40-year sentence for murdering his infant child.
Was Jackson uniquely susceptible to contracting the virus while in criminal quarantine? Is he less likely to contract it now that he’s at large and roaming about? Are the rest of us safer with him in our midst? Needless to say, Pritzker offered no explanation for his capricious decisions, but he must be held accountable for this monumental abuse of his authority.