SPRINGFIELD — Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday appointed a Massachusetts sheriff’s office official and former Illinois mayor to the new position of executive director of the embattled Illinois Prisoner Review Board, with a mandate to expand domestic violence training for board members.
The appointment of James G. Montgomery Jr. to the newly created post comes after Pritzker and the board came under intense criticism last month when a man the review board had allowed to be released from state custody allegedly attacked a pregnant woman he once dated and killed her young son.
Montgomery, whose appointment requires confIrmation from the state Senate, was elected mayor of downstate Taylorville in 1997 and remained in that post until 2005. Most recently, he was the director of administrative services with the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) sheriff’s department, supervising a chief financial officer, as well as directors of human resources and information technology.
In addition to overseeing the expansion of domestic violence training for Prisoner Review Board members, Montgomery will also be tasked with organizing “equity-based” training, overseeing administrative functions of the board and reducing the workload of the board’s chair. He won’t be considered a member of the board and will not have a vote on cases that come before it.
One goal of adding the executive director’s position is to allow the board’s chairperson to focus more on case work, including parole release decisions, adjudication of adult and youth release revocation hearings, victim notification regarding inmate releases, and requests for executive clemency on the governor’s behalf, Pritzker’s office said.
The most recent chair, Donald Shelton, resigned in March amid the controversy involving parolee Crosetti Brand, who a day after being released from state custody on March 12 fatally stabbed 11-year-old Jayden Perkins and attacked and injured the boy’s mother at their home on Chicago’s North Side, according to authorities.
Released on parole in October for a separate crime, Brand was back in state custody in February after he allegedly tried to break into the residence where Jayden and his mother lived. But three board members authorized Brand’s release after determining they didn’t have enough evidence to keep him behind bars.
One of the board members who approved Brand’s release, LeAnn Miller, also resigned. In announcing her resignation, Pritzker said the evidence in this case “was not given the careful consideration that victims of domestic violence deserve.”
The governor also vowed to make changes to the board’s operations including asking the panel to work with “experts and advocates” to expand its training in domestic violence cases.
Senate Republicans called for an overhaul of the review board that would include legislation requiring the members to have 20 years of experience in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, judge, probation officer or public defender.
The Senate GOP plan also has called for more stringent penalties for anyone who violates an order of protection, including bumping it to a Class 4 felony, punishable by up to three years in prison, from a misdemeanor for first-time offenders.
Senate Republican leader John Curran, of Downers Grove, said in a statement that a new staff position won’t make up for “an activist governor appointing unqualified board members.”
“Gov. Pritzker has still failed to provide a transparent accounting of the breakdown in the PRB process that led to the deadly release of Crosetti Brand,” Curran said. “Structural reforms such as raising the experience standards for PRB Board Members, increasing transparency requirements for hearings, and timely release notification for crime victims and their families, are still desperately needed to improve public safety.”
According to the governor’s office, Montgomery received his undergraduate degree from Millikin University in Decatur and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University.
His previous posts include time as commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. He was also once the Northeast/Midwest vice president of client services at Intermedix Corp., an emergency services and health care revenue cycle management and technology company.
Montgomery will be paid $160,000 a year, according to Pritzker’s office. The board’s chairman is paid $108,189 a year and the other board members earn $96,920 a year, records show.
“Montgomery’s role will be to ensure that the agency is operating effectively and efficiently to ensure that board members have the information and training they need to make their decisions,” said Pritzker spokesperson Olivia Kuncio.
The governor’s office is continuing a search for board members to replace Shelton and Miller, Kuncio said.