For a specific kind of criminal offender, prison time served is not always prison time sentenced.

In Illinois, a sex offender can be sentenced to five years in prison and end up serving more than a decade. This “dead time” spent in prison is independent of a convict’s sentence. Because of Illinois’s strict laws surrounding the release of sex offenders, many in the system find themselves staying there with nowhere to go, long after their time has been served, with Illinois residents footing the bill. 

WBEZ’s Max Green stops by Morning Shift to explain his report.