Former Gov. Ryan reflects on prison time

CHICAGO (WLS) -- George Ryan is an ex-governor and an ex-con. Monday, he blasted the federal prison system and questioned the sentence for another former governor, Rod Blagojevich, in a wide-ranging interview on "Windy City Live" on ABC7.

Earlier this month, just after his release from federal supervision, former Governor Ryan gave what he described as assembly line interviews, not very revealing.

Monday, live on ABC7's Windy City Live, he had more to say, including on his time in prison.

"It was just a total waste of time, frankly," Ryan said.

Exactly four weeks after his federal probation ended, Ryan told the Windy City Live interviewers the federal prison at Terre Haute did nothing to help the inmates with whom he'd been incarcerated.

"There's nothing there to rehabilitate them and bring them back into society the way they should be brought in," he said.

Ryan was convicted of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud that occurred during his term as Illinois Secretary of State. One trucker who obtained a CDL license through a bribe was involved in the fiery 1994 accident that killed the six Willis children.

"I had nothing to do absolutely with the deaths of those six children.

Ryan said.

Ryan revealed the victims' father, Reverend Duane Willis, through an intermediary, privately forgave him.

"It makes me feel good, I guess, but I never felt responsible for it," Ryan said.

In all, the 80-year-old Ryan served five years in a prison camp and seven months under house arrest at his home in Kankakee. He called his successor Rod Blagojevich's 14-year prison term for corruption excessive.

"Fourteen years in prison? For what?" Ryan asked.

Then Ryan raised eyebrows.

"And maybe Quinn's goin'. I don't know," Ryan said.

Ex-con Ryan joined other Republicans who called the current Governor Pat Quinn's 2010 anti-violence program "a political slush fund."

"He's under investigation and I just said there's a possibility there'd be another governor convicted," said Ryan. "I hope not. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

Ryan says he's writing a book on his 40-plus years in government that he hopes to have finished by the end of this year.

He also is continuing his campaign to end the death penalty in the United States.