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Criminal Justice Reform: Little Boy Murdered Hours After Suspect's Parole, GOP Lawmaker Warned for Years

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Two members of an Illinois Prisoner Review Board have resigned after an 11-year-old boy was stabbed to death and his mother injured, allegedly by a criminal they released despite the string of threats hurled at the victims.

The chairman and another member of the board stepped down after the murderous rampage was reportedly perpetrated by the man they released from jail. But it wasn’t the first time the board’s actions have led to hardship for innocents, a state Republican lawmaker noted this week.

Jayden Perkins, a popular 11-year-old boy in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, was allegedly murdered March 13 by Crosetti Brand, his mother’s ex-boyfriend, only a day after Brand was allowed to walk free out of a Chicago jail.

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board had released Brand on March 12 from the Stateville Correctional Center, the day before he allegedly confronted Jayden’s mother, stabbed her, and killed her son.

Brand was allowed to walk out of jail even though prosecutors had evidence that he had been sending threatening text messages to Jayden’s mother and even though a judge had set the date of March 13 to hear a case for an order of protection being sought against Brand.

The convict and accused murderer was rearrested and is facing one count of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of home invasion with a dangerous weapon, one count of armed robbery with a dangerous weapon, one count of aggravated domestic battery, one count of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, one count of violation of a prior order of protection, and one issuance of a warrant for a parole violation, according to court documents.

Not only had the accused killer been sending threatening texts to the victim, he had also been sent back to jail previously for violating the terms of his parole.

Is criminal justice reform working?

Despite all this evidence that Brand was a bad guy, the prisoner review board magnanimously decided to unleash this criminal on the public and let him walk out of jail as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

But thanks to the backlash that came down on the board’s heads, two members have now resigned. Board chair Donald Shelter and board member LeAnn Miller both announced their resignations Monday as the public reacted in outrage over their votes to free Brand, according to the New York Post.

The board initially feigned ignorance over the order of protection hearing to which Brand was set to be subjected, but it was later proven that the court had alerted the Department of Corrections to the pending order of protection hearing, despite the board’s insistence that it had not been told.

In light of these many failures to protect the public, Illinois’ extremist left-wing Gov. J.B. Pritzker has suddenly decided that the resignations were in the public good, despite his years of back-door efforts to shield this parole board.

“It is clear that evidence in this case was not given the careful consideration that victims of domestic violence deserve, and I am committed to ensuring additional safeguards and training are in place to prevent tragedies like this from happening again,” Pritzker piously said.

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But Illinois Republican state Sen. Jason Plummer railed against Pritzker, and, referencing the murder of the little boy, said, “I’m sick to my stomach over it. I heard the news, and I was just disgusted.”

Plummer went on to point out how Pritzker is culpable for the boy’s death, Fox News reported.

Plummer explained that many of Pritzker’s appointees had been on the board far past the 60-session-day deadline required for state Senate lawmakers to confirm them. The state senate is supposed to confirm the governor’s hundreds of appointments to state agencies, boards and commissions, but according to Plummer and other Republicans, Pritzker has been playing games with the process.

Pritzker has been removing his appointees, but then immediately reinstating their appointments, to reset the 60-day clock, thereby keeping the same people in their positions even without confirmation. Plummer said that many of these appointees have spent months or years in their positions without being confirmed, as the governor games the system.

“The governor is the one doing this and this boy is dead,” he added. “For the last three years, the governor of Illinois has taken a cavalier and reckless attitude towards the Prisoner Review Board and criminal justice in general.”

Indeed, Plummer and several other state Republicans have been warning about this parole board since 2021.

“They were letting child-killers out. They were letting cop-killers out. They were letting rapists out,” Plummer said of the GOP’s warning about the actions of the review board.

It is clear that Pritzker and this parole board are far more interested in pushing their left-wing, George Soros-inspired, ultra-far-left-wing political ideology of being soft on crime than in keeping their constituents and fellow citizens safe from violent repeat offenders.

The left’s “social justice reform” is neither “justice” nor “reform.” It is merely a political agenda that endangers each and every one of us.


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Warner Todd Huston has been writing editorials and news since 2001 but started his writing career penning articles about U.S. history back in the early 1990s. Huston has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN and several local Chicago news programs to discuss the issues of the day. Additionally, he is a regular guest on radio programs from coast to coast. Huston has also been a Breitbart News contributor since 2009. Warner works out of the Chicago area, a place he calls a "target-rich environment" for political news. Follow him on Truth Social at @WarnerToddHuston.
Warner Todd Huston has been writing editorials and news since 2001 but started his writing career penning articles about U.S. history back in the early 1990s. Huston has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN and several local Chicago news programs to discuss the issues of the day. Additionally, he is a regular guest on radio programs from coast to coast. Huston has also been a Breitbart News contributor since 2009. Warner works out of the Chicago area, a place he calls a "target-rich environment" for political news.




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