Al Capone. Operation Greylord. Four former Illinois governors in federal prison.

We have a long history of corruption around these parts, but WBEZ government and politics reporter Dave McKinney thinks that the present day – with figures like former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and former Chicago Ald. Ed Burke – may take the cake.

“It’s a little funny to think about what’s going on now as a golden era because that was certainly a golden era too,” McKinney said, “but with Madigan, with Burke, these people were so powerful.”

But shouldn’t decades of high-profile criminal trials and convictions actually act as a deterrent to public officials presented with opportunities of graft, bribery or fraud?

As a part of WBEZ’s Democracy Solutions Project, McKinney has been looking into why corruption thrives in Chicago and Illinois, what reforms we have made and could make, and the financial and emotional toll corruption takes on us as citizens. In this episode of the Rundown, McKinney explains why corruption remains and what we can do about it.