Julius Anderson, 63, was paroled in June 2009 to a St. Leonard's House, a halfway house on the Near West Side.
In the three months following his release, he sexually assaulted three women, according to a statement from the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
Anderson committed the three sexual assaults while he was out of the halfway house without permission, Cook County prosecutors said previously.
Anderson was convicted of multiple charges of attempted home invasion, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and attempted criminal sexual assault, the statement said.
The three assaults occurred between Aug. 15 and Sept. 1, 2009. In each instance, Anderson would approach the victim from behind and threaten to kill her if she did not do as he said, prosecutors said.
In the first, early the morning of Aug. 15, 2009, a 25-year-old woman was held at knife point and forced into a gangway near West Cornelia and North Marshfield, where she was sexually assaulted, prosecutors said.
The second attack occurred three days later when Anderson choked a 28-year-old woman to force his way into her apartment, where he tied her with nylon cord, removed her clothing and fondled her, prosecutors allege. He then told her she was going to die, but fled the apartment.
In the third attack on Sept. 1, a 28-year-old woman was grabbed as she entered her apartment, forced into a bedroom and bound with electrical tape, prosecutors allege. Anderson removed her clothing with a knife, cut her breast, sexually assaulted her then stole several items and fled.
"We are extremely grateful for and applaud the sentence in this case because it will ensure that this violent predator will never again walk the streets of Chicago to prey on innocent women," Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said in a statement.
Anderson was also convicted of sexual assault and armed robbery in 1973, and had two sexual assault and armed robbery convictions in 1977, prosecutors said.
Anderson was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, records show. He also racked up nearly 100 disciplinary violations in prison before he was paroled on June 26, 2009. The state selected St. Leonard's House as his parole "host site," but he didn't stay long. On Aug. 7, 2009, six weeks after arriving, Anderson asked state parole officials for permission to leave and was denied, records show. He removed an electronic monitoring bracelet and left without permission, records show.
The three women Anderson allegedly assaulted later filed a suit against St. Leonard's Ministries and the psychologists whose evaluation led to Anderson's parole.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez had urged the state to commit Anderson to a secured mental health facility indefinitely after he completed his prison term in 2009, as Illinois law allows for habitual sex offenders.
But Affiliated Psychologists recommended parole for Anderson. The lawsuit said Affiliated Psychologists failed to take Anderson's criminal and mental history into proper consideration.
St. Leonard's stopped accepting paroled sex offenders after Anderson was arrested in the 2009 attacks, but continues to house other types of parolees.
Julius Anderson, 59, was arrested near South Des Plaines and West Adams. Police say Anderson forced a woman into her boyfriend's Lincoln Park apartment at knifepoint near North and Clybourn early September 1, 2009 and sexually assaulted her while her boyfriend was away. Anderson was charged in the last crime after a cell phone he stole from his victim led detectives right to him.Police say Anderson attacked as his third victim left the Red Line stop at North and Clybourn and headed to her boyfriend's home. Investigators say, armed with a knife, Anderson forced her into her boyfriend's apartment where he held her for over an hour, sexually assaulting her before letting her go around 4 a.m.
The victim was listening to music with headphones or earbuds and did not realize a man with a knife was following her, and when she got to the door, the suspect came up behind her and held the knife to her throat, according to police.
She told him the residence was her boyfriend's home, but Anderson allegedly forced his way into the apartment and allegedly threatened to kill her and the boyfriend, who was at work, police said.
The arrest of Julius Anderson has sparked a debate over prison reform. Anderson is a C-number inmate, the designation used for those convicted of crimes before 1978 before the laws were changed.
Jennifer Bishop Jenkins of IllinoisVictims.org says that Anderson should never have been released from jail.
"The C-number inmate prisoners at this point are the worst of the worst. They need to serve out their sentences. The prisoner review board standards for release at this point should be extremely high if not impossible to obtain," said Jenkins.
Victims rights groups say that prison reform is needed.
"He has a horrendous constitutional disciplinary history including 99 major tickets, 34 minor tickets," said Jorge Montes, Illinois Prioners Review Board.
Those who support inmates' rights to earn early release say Anderson's case proves that there has to be a better balance between public safety and the rehabilitation of prisoners.
"If we take into consideration all these different factors and think about qualified body that can look at prisoners who may be don't need to be incarcerated forever and should be incarcerated longer than their sentence that would be a preferable model. There's lots of different factors to consider," said Shaena Fazal, John Howard Association.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
