Eye On Illinois: A corrected McCann might provide useful information on justice system

Sam McCann’s career in public service may not be over.

That might seem an odd prediction for a former member of the state Senate and failed gubernatorial candidate who earlier this month collected a 42-month federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to stealing almost $700,000 in campaign money and then filing false reports to cover his tracks.

But while reading Hannah Meisel’s Capitol News Illinois report on McCann’s sentencing for seven counts of wire fraud and one count each of money laundering and tax evasion, one passage stood out.

McCann, while speaking to U.S. District Judge Colleen Lawless at his July 9 sentencing, discussed his time at the Macon County Jail, where he’s been since February.

“The judge had ordered him detained when he disobeyed her directives after his sudden unexplained hospitalization on the eve of trial further delayed court proceedings, and she declined to release him on home confinement after his guilty plea to await sentencing,” Meisel wrote. “McCann said he was ‘thankful’ for his time in jail because of the relationships he was developing with other detainees and correctional officers. He also said he was coming to understand how some of the votes he took during his eight years in the General Assembly translated to real-world policy that contributed to his fellow detainees’ involvement with the criminal justice system.

" ‘I’d trust these men more than some of my colleagues in Illinois government,’ McCann said of his fellow detainees.”

The obvious joke is that some of those detainees might well have been McCann’s government colleagues, but taking McCann at his word, his past and future time behind bars could provide unique insight that would be beneficial to active legislators looking to improve the way the state handles people accused and convicted of crimes.

As the judge made clear, taking McCann at his word allowed his crimes to continue. She was bothered McCann “continued to steal” while “holding yourself out [to be] a God-fearing public servant. That may have been part of your stump speech and your public persona. But just because you said it over and over does not make it true.”

But if prisons are plausibly places of correction, McCann might well emerge with a wealth of knowledge to pass along to people who haven’t forfeited the right to stand for election. He can never be a “public servant” in that formal capacity, but McCann’s firsthand testimony might serve the public as a conduit for the experiences of inmates who will never be invited to testify at a legislative committee hearing.

The more we listen the more we learn, and even those society sends away still have valuable insight, even if only about their own treatment.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.