SPRINGFIELD | The Illinois House erupted into an angry confrontation over regionalism and race Wednesday, after a legislator from Chicago accused downstate lawmakers of wanting to stoke urban crime to make sure rural prisons don't close.
"There are some people in the Illinois General Assembly who have prisons in their district, and their whole objective is to keep them filled," state Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, alleged in a morning committee hearing.
She was referring to several downstate lawmakers from prison districts who oppose a bill that would make it easier for ex-convicts to get business loans.
"We got to have those prisoners. They've got to come down here from Chicago. ... We no longer plant corn, we no longer have farms, we don't raise cows and pigs, we keep prisoners," Davis said, summarizing what she claims is the attitude of downstate legislators.
"(Those lawmakers) don't want to stop crime because (that would stop) their livelihood. ... It is sad when your whole economy is based upon imprisonment of Americans."
Her comments infuriated downstate lawmakers.
"We want people to go to prisons because they committed crimes, not because we want to pump up the economy of Vandalia," said Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Highland, whose district encompasses or is near state prisons at Hillsboro, Vandalia and Centralia. "That's a criminal insult."
They also alleged Davis' comments injected "racial politics" into the debate, something she vehemently denied. Davis is black, and Stephens and other downstate lawmakers from prison districts who debated her on the issue are white.
They demanded that House leaders review transcripts from the hearing and admonish her if the transcripts prove what Stephens called "openly racial slurs" by Davis.
Stephens said Davis blasted downstate lawmakers for wanting to imprison "blacks from Chicago." Davis countered that she made no reference to race in the hearing.
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch review of an audiotape from the committee hearing found that neither account is entirely accurate.
Davis didn't refer to the imprisonment of "blacks from Chicago," according to the recording. She mentioned race, however, saying: "African-Americans down here" -- meaning, in the Legislature -- "have got to fight harder" against what she alleged are downstate efforts to encourage inmate recidivism.
A spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said there would be a review of the transcript from the hearing.
The bill that fueled the debate seeks to provide low-interest loans to ex-inmates so they can start businesses. It would fund the program with a new $15 monthly fee assessed on all paroled inmates, avoiding the use of tax money. The bill passed the committee on a 6-5 vote, and now goes to the full House.
The bill is HB2746.
