RYAN GOES TO JAIL

Former Governor George Ryan went to federal prison to begin serving his 6 1/2 year sentence for public dishonesty and corruption. His lawyer-friend-mentor, former Gov. James Thompson took the last road trip with Ryan to the prison located in Wisconsin.

It was a day long in the making for those citizens who demand honest government.

It was business as usual in Springfield, where the General Assembly is mired in the longest special session(s), debt laced spending and misappropriations in history of the State.

The prison officials claimed that Ryan would get no special treatment. But Ryan arrived through a back gate instead of the front gate where all normal prisoners report through (and where the media was congregated.)

But Ryan has been getting special treatment from the courts since he was convicted; he was out on bail when his appeal was being decided twice, by the 7th Circuit panels. A normal defendant would have been serving while the appeal was being argued by his counsel.

But Illinois politics seeps deep into all phases of government. Illinois is a state that has institutionalized favoritism, patronage, and profiteering in the name of public service.

Ryan is the latest governor to find his way to a federal penal institution. And if history has the lessons learned, he will not be the last.