Chambana Sun

There are three inmates sentenced to jail in Vermilion County set to be released from the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections during the week ending Oct. 5.

The inmate being released who served the longest time was Matthew Upton for a sex crime. Matthew Upton spent more than 10 years incarcerated.

According to The Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability, Illinois spends about $37,000 a year per incarcerated person. In a study by Prison Policy Initiative, Illinois’ incarceration rate was at 564 per 100,000, higher than every industrialized country, except the United States. When compared with its surrounding states, Illinois was the lowest. Kentucky and Missouri have rates over 850 per 100,000.

One of the issues is how pretrial detainees are now handled. The Vera Institute of Justice noted that pretrial detainees made up 71% of the total jail population.

Most prison inmates are released on some condition of supervised monitoring upon reentering civilian life. This monitoring can last from one year to the rest of someone’s life.

Name	Offense	Supervised Release Date	Holding Facility
Matthew Upton	sex crime	2022-11-02	Vienna Correctional Center
Narai Spencer	felony possession or use of a firearm (with a firearm prior)	2022-11-02	Lincoln Correctional Center
Nathan Z. Blanton	aggravated battery against an officer of the peace	2022-11-03	Illinois River Correctional Center