For Release – from the Governor’s Office
SPRINGFIELD (July 5, 2018) — Gov. Bruce Rauner today named three new appointees to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, a quasi-judicial body that imposes release conditions, regulates good conduct credits, conducts parole hearings and makes executive clemency recommendations, among other tasks.
He also named Acting Executive Inspector General Susan Haling to her first full five-year term. Haling, a former first assistant inspector general for the state, took on the lead OEIG role in March after Maggie Hickey departed to join a private law firm. “Susan Haling has a proven record of service,” Rauner said.
Prisoner Review Board appointees are Lisa Daniels of Lansing, Joseph Ruggiero of Wheaton and Patricia Wilson of Du Quoin. Rauner said he’s confident the review board trio will excel in their roles.
“These are smart, qualified people,” he said. “They’re aware of our aim to stop the revolving door of recidivism and to increase positive outcomes for people coming out of state prisons while maintaining public safety.”
Daniels earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Chicago State University in 2006 after completing her GED requirements in 1995. She is a senior administrative assistant at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and was a Cook County Department of Corrections employee in the mid 1990s.
Daniels also is the founder and executive director of the Darren B. Easterling Center for Restorative Practices serving the Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing and Woodlawn communities of Chicago. The behavioral health services organization is named for Daniels’ son, who died at age 25 as the result of street violence.
Ruggiero, a 1980 graduate of Evergreen Park Community High School, attended the University of Illinois at Champaign and earned his law degree from the Chicago Kent College of Law in 1987. He is a first assistant to the DuPage County State’s Attorney. Ruggiero has participated on numerous law enforcement-focused advisory boards and task forces, including the Major Crimes Task Force, the Domestic Violence Advisory Board and the Attorney General’s Statewide Task force on Internet Crimes.
Wilson is a former longtime Department of Corrections employee with a master’s degree in rehabilitation administration earned at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1996. She has extensive experience in substance abuse, domestic violence and sex offender treatment, and held positions of correctional and acting clinical supervisor as well as warden at Menard Psychiatric Center. More recently, she assisted with the treatment planning and sessions for sex offenders on parole and on probation as an employee of Centralia-based Stover & Associates.
Prisoner Review Board Chairman Craig Findley praised the governor’s selections.
“Gov. Rauner’s appointments today demonstrate his commitment to diversity, experience and ability,” Findley said.
Prisoner Review Board appointees regularly serve six years. The new appointees are taking on unexpired terms ending in January 2023 for Daniels and 2019 for Ruggiero and Wilson. Today’s appointments bring the 15-member bipartisan board to capacity.