Chief Justice wants budget cuts reversed

SPRINGFIELD -- The chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court has asked Gov. Pat Quinn to restore funding cuts to state probation services, saying the current level is "dangerously inadequate."

Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald made the plea in a Sept. 1 letter to Quinn and made public Tuesday.

State funds for community-based probation programs were cut 44 percent in the current budget. This same area was cut 13 percent in 2005 and, Fitzgerald said, the money was never restored.

"The practical effect ... is that probation officers must be laid off, criminal offenders sentenced to probation receive inadequate or no supervision, and the public safety is thereby severely compromised," he wrote.

Fitzgerald said he understands the seriousness of the state's budget crunch. "I make this request only after careful deliberation and out of the most grave concerns for the public safety of Illinois' citizens," he said.

Quinn spokesman Bob Reed said the governor did propose fully funding probation services in his budget, which included a tax increase, and it was lawmakers who cut the amount. The governor can't restore the cuts by himself, Reed said.