City West Journal

There were three offenders convicted of crimes involving alcohol released on parole near Illinois ZIP Code 60612 during 2023, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The data shows that all of the released offenders among the parolees were men. Of the parolees, one was a veteran. The youngest parolee was a 60-year-old male convicted of a crime involving alcohol in 2022, and the oldest was a 66-year-old male convicted of a crime involving alcohol in 2022.

The offender who had been incarcerated the longest was Timothy F. Graesslin. He was convicted of a crime involving alcohol in 2021, when he was 61 years old. He is now 64.

Commonly referred to as parole in Illinois, Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR) is a post-prison supervision period, in which individuals must follow specific rules like check-ins with parole officers; violations can lead to re-incarceration. Unlike parole, MSR is automatically required for all individuals released after serving a prison sentence.

In 2023, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill to reform Illinois’ Mandatory Supervised Release program. The law aims to reduce recidivism and reportedly create a more effective and equitable supervision system by incentivizing education, streamlining the review process, and expanding virtual check-ins.

“Our current supervision system too often operates unfairly, with rules that make it simply a revolving door back to jail,” Pritzker said at a bill signing ceremony in Chicago. “In fact, more than 25% of people who are released from prison in Illinois end up back behind bars, not because they’re recidivists, but instead for a noncriminal technical violation.”

A 2018 report from the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council indicated that 43% of released prisoners in Illinois return to prison within three years.

The table below shows the 50 ZIPs in Illinois with the most paroled offenders in 2023 who were convicted of crimes involving alcohol.