I’ll admit: I was going to say I told you so.
Tuesday’s column about mail and electronic devices in Department of Corrections facilities drew feedback from readers regarding the serious problems after drugs enter facilities.
Also, on Tuesday, Capitol News Illinois published a report headlined: “Lawmakers grill Department of Corrections after audit shows dozens of failures.”
The story (tinyurl.com/IDOCaudit) covered what might charitably be labeled clerical issues (bypassing the approved purchasing process, workers being allowed to take a vacation day, then show up and work for overtime pay and more), but also this nugget:
“The department released its first data comparing drug exposures before and after the rule change … That data shows little change in the rate of exposures in the six months preceding and following the ruling, instead showing an increase in total drug discoveries from 392 to 414. Discoveries in cells and on people also increased, with almost 40 more incidents of in-cell drug discoveries made.”
But rather than using my remaining 300 words to offer a little victory lap to the incarcerated reader who wrote to ask, “Where are the drugs coming from?” the focus instead goes to a convicting quote from state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, that ought not to get lost in any shuffles.
Rose, who co-chairs the Legislative Audit Commission, dressed down DOC Director LaToya Hughes for helming an agency with 40 shortcomings in fiscal 2023 and 2024:
“I don’t know why the two worst-run departments in the state are the ones that deal with lives of people … We are being fleeced – the taxpayers,” Rose said. “You are putting people’s lives at risk. … And honestly, it’s about the safety of people in the state and the safety of the men and women that work there.”
In addition to Corrections, the quote implicates another frequent subject: the Department of Children and Family Services. While wary of inferring a different meaning from Rose’s intent, his words remind me of a point I wish I could stop making.
Here’s just one example, from April 2023, regarding “the state’s failure to provide sufficient care to people in its custody – which means protective care or guardianship, not just lock and key – such as veterans homes residents or those under various levels of DCFS programs. The horror stories, while outliers, still are too numerous to abide. …
“They remind us of the full scope of state government and its inherent obligations to do things for people the private sector cannot, will not or should not do, yet few of us are forced to truly confront the implications of failure on the lives of the failed.”
No one has easy answers. But that reality won’t make the hard questions disappear.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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April 18, 2026 at 10:00AM
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