George Ryan May Get Early Release To Halfway House [Report]

Former Illinois Governor George Ryan could be heading for early release on January 30, if reports are true.

Ryan is allegedly scheduled for release to a halfway house on Chicago’s West Side. He is currently being held at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The former Illinois governor, 78, is serving a 6 1/2 year sentence for a 2006 corruption charges conviction, reports NBC Chicago.

Ryan’s attorney, former Governor Jim Thompson, stated last August that Ryan qualified for a nearly release program. The program allows the former politician to be released five months before his initial scheduled date of July 2013.

Ryan initially asked for early release when the Supreme Court ruled on honest services that affected his case. The appellate court ended up upholding the former Illinois governor’s conviction last July.

They ruled that the “honest services” laws the Supreme Court ruled on didn’t apply to the case, because it included bribery and kickbacks.

The Chicago Sun Times notes that several things have happened to the 78-year-old former governor since he entered prison. Not only did he lose his wife, Lura Lynn, to cancer, he also lost his brother, Tom, a former mayor of Kankakee, to pneumonia.

While the release date has not been verified by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it isn’t unusual for inmates to be released six months early and sent to a halfway house closer to their home. George Reed’s only son, Homer, stated of his father’s release:

“But I know the first thing he’ll do when he gets out is to visit Mom’s grave and take care of the house [in Kankakee]. He’ll be 79 years old when he comes home [from the halfway house].”

Do you think that George Ryan should be released early?