After 20 Years as a Prosecutor in Illinois, I Quit

By Jason Poje

Editor’s be aware: The next is an e mail written by Prepare dinner County prosecutor Jason Poje, circulated to colleagues final week.)

To my colleagues:

After 20 years, I all the time type of figured an e mail like this is able to begin with “It’s with a heavy coronary heart that I go away…” The reality is, I can’t get out of right here quick sufficient.

Let me begin with the constructive. There’s not a single day that has passed by that I’ve not felt really honored to work with such an unimaginable group of people that spent each waking hour on behalf of victims. This chance has been a present for which I’ve no phrases to elucidate the extent of my gratitude.

My companions, our Sufferer/Witness advocates, our Investigators, our help workers, the cops and detectives, time after time I see every of you placing every little thing you may have into serving to individuals we encounter on the worst days of their lives. So usually I see our private lives, and certainly at occasions our personal well-being, put aside simply to do some bit extra on that final case for that final sufferer. It’s been nothing in need of inspiring not as a lawyer, however as an individual.

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And but, I’m leaving. Why may that be? The easy reality is that this State and County have set themselves on a course to catastrophe. And the worst half is that the company for whom I work has backed actually each coverage change that had the predictable, and predicted, consequence of extra crime and extra individuals getting harm.

Bond reform designed to ensure nobody stays in jail whereas their instances are pending with no security web to deal with extra criminals on the streets, shorter parole durations, decrease sentences for repeat offenders, the malicious and pointless prosecution of legislation enforcement officers, overuse of diversion applications, deliberately not pursuing prosecutions for crimes lawfully on the books after being handed by our legislature and signed by a governor, all of those so-called reforms have had a direct damaging affect, with penalties that may final for a technology.

A few years in the past my household discovered a pleasant quiet nook of the suburbs. Now my son, who is barely 5, hears gunfire whereas enjoying at our neighborhood park, and a drug seller is open-air promoting behind my home (the second in two years). If it had been simply me to contemplate, I’d stick it out. I’ve been via silly State’s Lawyer insurance policies earlier than. However this Workplace’s full failure to even suppose for a second earlier than speeding into one widespread political agenda after one other has put my household instantly in hurt’s means.

The present individuals answerable for this state, together with the [State’s Attorney’s Office] endure from a elementary misunderstanding…we reside in a society with adversarial courtroom and prison justice processes. Protection attorneys, authorized help clinics, Public Defenders, defendant advocate teams…they struggle like hell to guard the rights of prison defendants. And they need to. Their work is as noble as ours. However we’ve got an obligation to struggle like hell on behalf of the Individuals. It ought to go with out saying that this have to be executed ethically and evenhandedly. When each side vigorously defend their positions, a steadiness is reached between defending rights whereas preserving some kind of order and security. As soon as we begin doing an excessive amount of of the protection’s job, as soon as we pull our punches, as soon as we resolve that it’s price risking residents’ lives to have somewhat social experiment, that steadiness is misplaced. The unavoidable penalties are what we’re witnessing in actual time, a rise in crime of every kind, companies and households pulling up stakes, and the our bodies piling up; the entire time with a State’s Lawyer who insists that there’s nothing to see right here, and if there may be it have to be another person’s fault. After which they surprise why they can’t retain skilled prosecutors and even rent new ones…it’s as a result of any true prosecutor acknowledges the significance of this steadiness, and that they won’t be permitted to be a prosecutor below this administration.

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I cannot elevate my son right here. I’m lucky sufficient to have the means to flee, so my whole household is leaving the State of Illinois. I grew up right here, my household and pals are right here, and but my very own employer has turned it into a spot from which I’m not proud to be, and through which my son is just not secure.

To everybody within the trenches within the State’s Lawyer’s Workplace and in legislation enforcement, my one remorse is that I can’t be at your aspect anymore as you proceed to struggle the nice struggle. I don’t envy the duty you may have earlier than you, however you may have my utmost respect for carrying on. I hope sooner or later you’re profitable at returning some type of widespread sense and safety to our communities.

Thanks all a lot for this chance to serve. I’ll treasure each second of this chapter in my life. Be secure, be nicely, struggle onerous.

Jason F. Poje
Assistant State’s Lawyer

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

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