Breaking: Joliet locker room voyeur gets probation instead of prison

A former school janitor convicted of making secret locker room videos of adolescent girls was given 30 months of probation instead of a five-year prison sentence.

Will County Judge Dave Carlson initially sentenced Ryan Thompson, 28, to five years in prison, but changed his sentence Tuesday after learning the Illinois Department of Corrections lacked the resources to provide him sex offender treatment.

Thompson’s probation is scheduled to end May 27, 2021.

Carlson had Thompson transferred to prison so he could determine what kind of treatment he would receive while being locked away from the community.

However, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office requested Carlson’s order be vacated because it was legally void, and the IDOC has “an extended backlog of inmates” waiting for sex offender treatment.

Carlson granted the order, and Thompson was brought back to the Will County jail.

Carlson said at Tuesday’s hearing that as a taxpayer, it makes him sick the IDOC doesn’t have the resources to give Thompson treatment.

“But I can’t tell them what to do,” Carlson said.

Carlson has pondered for months on how to give Thompson a sentence that would ensure he will not commit his crimes again, keep the community safe and let others know he was convicted of a crime involving children at a school that was sexual in nature.

At a May 1 hearing, Carlson said a psychosexual evaluation showed Thompson’s significant sexual interests include white girls between 14 and 17, and he was above the average risk of re-offending.

Carlson said his crimes were not a “one-time-only thing.”

Thompson’s conviction of unauthorized video recording does not require him to register as a sex offender.

Thompson’s attorney, Nicole Sartori, had moved that the former janitor receive a lighter sentence, prompting the court hearings.

Sartori requested Thompson receive probation so he could finish his psychological treatment and move on with his life. She said she didn’t believe IDOC would be able to provide him treatment.

“He would just get lost in a sea of inmates,” Sartori said.

She said the treatment Thompson currently is receiving would take about two years and comes with measures to ensure compliance. She said Thompson would live with his mother upon release.