Erica Zunkel Discusses Ed Burke Case on NBC Chicago
NBC 5 Investigates: Ex-Ald. Ed Burke about to become ex-con Burke
The NBC 5 Investigates Team has learned that less than one year after former Alderman Ed Burke was sent to prison, he is preparing to be sent home.
Burke's two-year sentence behind bars is set to end after serving less than ten months.
Several sources with direct knowledge of his case tell NBC Chicago that Burke will be released from the Thomson federal prison in northwestern Illinois to a halfway house or, more likely, home confinement.
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"He would not be getting special or preferential treatment if he's getting earned time credits under the First Step Act,” says Erica Zunkel, a criminal justice professor and prison expert at University of Chicago. “He's earned those under the law which can go towards crediting early release. The Second Chance Act specifically applies to elderly prisoners. So he's not being treated differently than anyone else who is, you know, who is 60 to 65 and above."
She points to a Bureau of Prisons announcement last week that may be resulting in Burke's good fortune. It is a new policy that encourages earlier home confinement for certain federal prisoners, based on age, type of crime, low odds of re-offending and a return to productive society.
"He will have to stay at his home, but for essential activities. So if he needed to meet with his lawyers, if he needed to go to court, if he needed to go to the doctor, he would all of that is coordinated through the residential reentry center,” says Zunkel. “If he was to violate any conditions of his home confinement, then he could go back to prison."
Read more at NBC Chicago