Rep. Thomas Bennett (R-Watseka) expressed his frustration with the legislative gridlock in Springfield on his website recently, pointing specifically to the lack of action on a bill to protect correction workers.
The bill, HB2319 came about after constituent input regarding correctional worker safety and assaults by inmates, Bennett posted. Current guidelines allow concurrent sentences, so an inmate who commits three assaults could serve prison time equivalent to just one conviction.
The bill is meant to ensure that inmates serve the full term of each sentence, one after the other. It was assigned to committee for review, but Bennett said he had been told the bill would not come to a vote this session.
"Partisan games have ground the wheels of state government almost to a total halt, while the state’s problems grow larger and harder to solve every day," Bennett wrote. "People of good will on both sides MUST come together now to find compromise and agreement on solutions before it is too late."
Bennett also provided an update on the Department of Corrections' plans to lay off nurses. The department had intended to subcontract an outside contractor and lay off more than 100 nurses, but Bennett said he and his colleagues successfully encouraged the department to rescind the layoffs. Negotiations with the Illinois Nurses' Association are ongoing.
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