Arrested 396 Times
“All of us are reaching out to you and offering you, maybe for the first time in your life, a hand, OK?” Judge Peggy Chiampas told Shermain Miles. “But you’ve got to reach out and grab all of our hands as well.”
Miles, who was dressed in a bright yellow prison jumpsuit, kept her hands behind her back and politely answered Chiampas’ questions. She told the judge, “I just want to thank you.”
“I’m not that person,” said Miles, 51, who has previously been known to shriek in courthouse lockups.
Miles has been at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln since December. She’d been released in April 2011 after serving thee years for an armed robbery conviction but was arrested several more times while on parole, triggering her return to prison.
Among the reasons for her later arrests was an alleged attack on Ald. James Cappleman (46th) last summer. Miles pleaded guilty in that case Monday and in two separate cases of trespassing and drinking alcohol on a public way.
Chiampas sentenced Miles to time served for all three, but she said she only did so because Miles said she’d submit to a mental health evaluation and follow-up treatment, as well as treatment for alcohol abuse, at the Lincoln prison.
A representative from Cappleman’s office attended the hearing, and a prosecutor said the alderman is satisfied with the deal.
Adam Monreal, chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, also attended the morning hearing but couldn’t immediately say how the deal will affect Miles’ release from prison.
As of Monday afternoon, IDOC records listed Miles’ parole date as “to be determined.”
