Convicted former Chicago schools chief leaves prison
CHICAGO (AP) - Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has left a federal prison where she was serving a sentence after pleading guilty in a multi-million dollar kickback scheme.
On Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that records indicate that the 70-year-old Byrd-Bennett left the federal prison in West Virginia where she was serving a 4 1/2-year prison sentence.
Byrd-Bennett, who still remains technically in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was reassigned to a halfway house in Ohio, as part of an initiative announced in April by Attorney General William Barr to release inmates at the end of their sentence or are at greater risk of contracting the coronavirus because of their age or medical conditions.
The Bureau of Prisons still projects Byrd-Bennett's official release date as June 28 of next year.
In 2016, Byrd-Bennett pleaded guilty to fraud charges for her part in a scheme that steered $23 million in no-bid contracts to two education firms for a more than $2 million kickback.
She was sentenced to prison the next year and reported to the minimum security facility in West Virginia later that year.