The NBC 5 Investigates Team has learned that less than one year after ex-Ald. 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 familiar with 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.
During his long political career, Burke logged 54 years in the Chicago City Council, more than anyone in city history. But it is the short term Burke will have served in federal prison that will distinguish his incarceration.
The 81-year-old Burke reported to prison last September. He had been sentenced to two years for racketeering, bribery, and extortion.
Secret FBI recordings were key to Burke’s conviction on 13 federal counts, with a jury finding that the once-powerful finance committee chairman used his position to solicit and shake down private legal work and other perks from businesses that had city contracts.
NBC 5 Investigates has been told by several people who have knowledge of Burke’s impending release that he will be sent home on July 7th or 8th, even though his official out time according to a Bureau of Prisons record is next February.
“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.”
The decision to release any prisoner at a certain time is up to officials with the United States Bureau of Prisons, not the courts. And it’s not considered public information, so there is no public record of this Burke plan.
The former alderman has also filed for clemency from the U.S. Department of Justice, including a full pardon. NBC Chicago has asked Burke’s attorney whether that application will continue, and we’ve not received a response.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has not commented as well.
