Barring an unlikely intervention by the US Supreme Court, former Illinois Governor George H. Ryan will begin his 6 1/2 year prison sentence on November 7, probably at the the Duluth Federal Prison Camp in Minnesota, a minimum-security facility.
Ryan will be the third Illinois governor to serve time in prison since the 1970s, the others being Otto Kerner and Dan Walker, the latter served his sentence in Duluth.
Not surprisingly, the administration and campaign organization of our current governor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, are being investigated by the office of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
Ryan's political career began as a soldier in the Kankakee County Republican Party in the 1960s-- his brother Tom was the longtime mayor of Kankakee. After serving on the Kankakee County Board, George Ryan moved up to the Illinois House of Representatives, eventually becoming speaker. In 1983, Ryan was elected Lieutenant Governor, then Secretary of State, before being elected governor in 1998.
Rampant corruption, mostly involved selling driver's licenses for bribes, was endemic during Ryan's stewardship of the Secretary of State's office--it took a while, but the methodical federal investigation of his office eventually made its way up to Ryan--but he wasn't indicted until after his single term of governor had ended.
Facing almost certain defeat in 2002, George Ryan chose not to run for re-election.
Unlike most political scandals, this one involved fatalities. On the same day Ryan was re-elected as Secretary of State in 1994, a trucker who got his Illinois driver's licence by paying a bribe, killed six children in Milwaukee in a fiery traffic accident.
Of course outside of Illinois, Ryan is best known for clearing out the state's death row shortly before leaving the governor's mansion in 2003.
Now he's the latest bust on the trophy case dedicated to the politicians of America's most corrupt state.
Prison will be a horrible experience for the septuagenarian. Let's hope the Duluth facility is as humanely as a prison can be, something former Governor Walker says was not the situation there in the 1980s, as CBS 2 Chicago reports:
"I hope sincerely he doesn't encounter the kind of mindless brutality I did at Duluth," Walker said.
Walker says he saw a prisoner gang raped at night while on-looking guards did nothing. And Walker was humiliatingly strip searched, outdoors, on the frozen prison yard, in full view of other inmates.
"Squat and spread it was called, that was the order the guard would give: squat and spread," Walker said. "You can use your imagination."
Ryan's prison number has already been assigned, it's 16627-424.
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