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The state of Illinois is suing inmates previously released by the Illinois Department of Corrections, in order to cover the costs of their incarcerations.

According to the Chicago Tribune who broke the story, the practice is not irregular. Illinois regularly files suits against high level convicts released after serving time for murder and sex offenses--in order to recoup some of the money it cost to house and feed that inmate.

Prison reform group John Howard Association found that in 2009, it cost the state of Illinois an average of $25,000 annually to keep each inmate in prison.

The story that the Tribune alleges shows that not only are the high-level offenders being sued after release, but also much lower-offense inmates. Inmates who are especially likely to get sued are those “who have earned or come into relatively modest sums of money, whether through an inheritance, a trust fund or” any other public means.

The Chicago Tribune story profiles one anonymous inmate who won $50,000 in liability claims from the state, after it failed to adequately treat his cancer. After his release, the state sued him right back--this time for $175,000, more than three times the amount he won prior. More egregious was the fact that the first settlement was banked on a legal agreement barring the state from trying to recoup its losses.

“The Legislature should revisit whether this law is appropriate...these recoveries may raise roadblocks to former inmates trying to lead successful lives out of prison,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan told the Tribune. “As a result, the judgments that must be made in attempting to recover incarceration costs raise moral questions that legislators need to address.”

There are 43 states with laws on the books or at least legal precedents that allow the states to seek monetary compensation from inmates in order to lower the burden on taxpayers. The law in Illinois has been in practice since 1982, though it is being used with exponentially increasing frequency. The Tribune notes that in 2012 and 2013, only two lawsuits were filed in each year--with a noted increase of 11going through the courts during the first 10 months of 2015.

Instead of addressing the problem of incarceration in the first place--in May 2015 there were 47,483 inmates in Illinois overcrowding a correctional system built with a capacity of 32,000--the state is taking odious measures.

“The problem with all of this is that we’re supporting the justice system by charging the poorest members of our society. That’s just not a cost-efficient way — and a lot of people would argue it’s not a moral way — to operate a system,” Lauren-Brooke Eisen at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice told the Tribune. “How much is it costing to do this? There are clerks and lawyers and judges involved in all this. It doesn’t seem cost-efficient.”

Illinois has prosecuted 11 such cases since 2010, taking in $512,219. 81 percent, of $415,590 came from just two of these cases.