Kenneally Bashes Bill That Limits Alcohol Use Rules In Criminal Cases

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally slammed Gov. J.B. Pritzker's "face-to-palm" bill signed last week that would prohibit a judge from ordering a defendant to refrain from alcohol or marijuana as part of a criminal sentence until they undergo a "validated clinical assessment."

State's attorney Patrick Kenneally says the "validated clinical assessments" required by law "is ludicrously easy to game and manipulate a 'low-risk' result." Kenneally, in a statement released Thursday, said the assessments are based on the information the defendant decides to disclose.

Also, the clinicians who can perform the assessments only needs a high school degree and 1.5 years of work experience in a substance abuse treatment field, Kenneally said.

"Essentially, the 'clinician' asks the defendant a short series of questions about their recent alcohol and drug use and makes little to no attempt to verify whether the answers are true or not," Kenneally said.

Kenneally added that these clinicians often operate out of unsightly strip malls and run volume businesses for DUI and drug defendants in need of evaluations.

"So, in other words, despite an elected judge’s firm, moral conviction based on a defendant’s criminal history and the nature of his crime that the community and others are in danger at the hands of a violent or reckless drunk, a judge’s ruling on a criminal sentence is now dependent upon the convicted criminal laying bare the ugly and mortifying truth about his drinking to a stranger in a strip mall who has got five more 'evaluations' that afternoon," Kenneally said.

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Kenneally said alcohol use is likely the most prominent "root" cause of crime and criminal offenses, especially violent ones. He said 40 percent of murderers and up to 60 percent of domestic batterers used alcohol before or during their crimes.

"Giving judges discretion to order a convicted criminal to refrain from alcohol if there is reasonable evidence that alcohol may precipitate further misbehavior is so obvious and prudent one can only conclude this bill passed by force of belligerent appeals to 'equity' as opposed to logic," Kenneally said.