Despite being locked up for more than two decades, a former Hoffman Estates man convicted of sexually assaulting nine teenage boys in the mid-1980s said Thursday he is in no hurry to get out of prison.

Phillip M. Jones told a McHenry County judge he does not want to oppose efforts by the Illinois attorney general to have him declared a sexually violent person and keep him detained indefinitely.

Jones was scheduled for parole Wednesday after serving 21 years in prison on charges he assaulted numerous teenage boys, most of them at knifepoint, in Lake and McHenry counties. The attorney general's office blocked that parole Monday when it filed a petition asking a McHenry County judge to rule Jones a sexually violent person.

The finding would allow the state to keep Jones in custody at a treatment facility for sex offenders where he would remain until doctors and a judge agree he is no longer a danger to society.

In spite of Jones' wishes, Judge Sharon Prather said she could not rule until she is certain Jones understands what he is doing by giving up his right to a trial and admitting he is a sexually violent person.

Prather, however, did rule the state has probable cause to continue detaining Jones past his parole date and ordered him held in Department of Human Services custody until the case is decided.

Jones has a lengthy criminal record dating to his teenage years that, in addition to numerous sex crimes, includes convictions for burglary, theft, robbery and attempted murder.

In 1985 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to deviant sexual assault charges involving attacks on nine teenage boys he lured into his van or secluded areas. In a subsequent interview in prison, Jones told authorities he had committed hundreds of sex assaults against minor boys and girls in seven states since the 1960s.

The report of a psychologist who met with Jones last week said he remains a dangerous person who would very likely commit more sex crimes if released from prison this week.

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