If rehabilitated, parole Larry Hoover

 

If rehabilitated, parole Larry Hoover

Life serving prisoner Larry Hoover faces a daunting challenge to gain freedom after 26 years in prison. He’s serving both state and federal lifr sentences; the former for a 1973 execution murder, the latter or running a criminal enterprise from prison.

As a young man Hoover was a raging criminal masterminding one of Chicago’s most notorious gangs. When incarcerated in 1998, Hoover faced certain life on the state charge, then another on the federal racketeering charge.

But the First Step Act signed by President Trump in 2018 opened prison doors to thousands of inmates exhibiting rehabilitation while serving long, often life sentences.

Hoover should be given the opportunity to demonstrate his rehabilitation, qualifying him for release from federal prison without consideration of the heinousness of his crimes. Such consideration simply amounts to endless vengeance for those crimes which serve no purpose in the criminal justice system.

Hoover’s federal prison cell should be reserved for recent criminals who represent an imminent and serious danger to society. At 73, frail, while expressing and acting in positive ways that appear to have no connection whatsoever to his criminal past, Hoover may quality for freedom under the First Step Act.

If so, the second step would be for Governor Pritzker to exhibit that same compassion to Hoover on his state life sentence. Doing so would also serve the true purpose of the criminal justice system: spending our criminal justice tax dollars wisely to protect the public.