Van Dyke leaves federal custody for a state prison outside Illinois

Convicted former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke is no longer in federal custody in New York and has been moved to a state prison outside of Illinois, officials tell the Chicago Sun-Times.

Illinois corrections officials would not disclose his location, but the Maryland Division of Corrections shows an inmate with Van Dyke’s name and date of birth is currently being held at the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center in Baltimore.

A spokesperson for Van Dyke’s attorney, however, could not confirm whether or not that inmate was Van Dyke.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lindsey Hess said IDOC still claims jurisdiction over Van Dyke, who is serving a nearly seven-year prison sentence after his second-degree murder conviction for the death of Laquan McDonald.

Hess confirmed Van Dyke was transferred Tuesday to a state prison beyond Illinois’ borders, but she wouldn’t get any more specific than that “for his safety.”

“If he wants to release that information, he certainly can do that,” Hess said.

The spokesperson for Van Dyke’s lawyer, Dan Herbert, said the lawyer was aware of Van Dyke’s transfer, but said he didn’t know where Van Dyke wound up.

Citing the Interstate Corrections Compact Agreement, which governs the transfer of inmates between states, Hess said it’s common for Illinois to send inmates across borders. When it does, she said the inmate’s new location is not disclosed.

Hess also did not give a reason for the transfer.

Though federal prison records Tuesday put Van Dyke, 41, at a federal prison in New York, it also listed Tuesday as Van Dyke’s official “release date.” Late Tuesday afternoon, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long said in an email that Van Dyke “is no longer in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.”

Long also directed a reporter to the Illinois Department of Corrections “for more information.”

Hess confirmed nearly an hour later that Van Dyke had left the federal prison system, adding that, “He remains under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Corrections, but is not in our custody.”

She wrote, “For safety and security purposes, the Department does not discuss details concerning the placement of offenders who have transferred under the terms of the Interstate Corrections Compact Agreement.”

A jury found Van Dyke guilty in October 2018 of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery for the shooting death of the 17-year-old McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced Van Dyke in January to nearly seven years in prison, though he is expected to serve only a little more than three years.

Officials moved Van Dyke in February from Rock Island County Jail about 170 miles west of Chicago to a federal prison in Danbury, Conn. Though he had been held in isolation in Illinois, Van Dyke told his lawyers he had been beaten up by other inmates four hours after arriving at the federal facility in Connecticut.

By mid-March, Van Dyke had been transferred to the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York.