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Compromise criminal justice bill advances out of Senate

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State legislators in Springfield are moving to address gun violence in Chicago. The Illinois Senate [yesterday] passed stricter gun laws long sought by the Chicago Police. The legislation is meant to get judges to impose longer sentences on repeat gun offenders.

* Tribune…

An earlier version of the plan to raise minimum sentences for some repeat gun crime felons stalled last month despite the high-profile backing of Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson. It’s almost always difficult to pass gun legislation in Springfield, where widely varying regional attitudes toward firearms complicate the politics. The broad nature of this proposal also drew complaints from different directions, which maintained it was too soft on drug criminals or too hard on minorities.

Over the last several weeks, Democratic Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago worked to ease some of those concerns among opponents, including Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office. Key to that effort was stripping provisions that would have softened penalties on certain drug crimes. Police contended drug sales fuel gun crimes, and Republicans said decreasing prison time for convicted dealers would send the wrong message as a heroin epidemic grips the suburbs.

“The governor is pleased to have reached an agreement on this important legislation,” Rauner spokesman Lance Trover said. […]

The legislation would increase the sentencing guidelines for judges deciding punishment for some repeat gun felons. Instead of a range of three to 14 years, judges would hand out sentences in the range of seven to 14 years. If they wanted to depart from that guideline, they would have to explain why.

* Sun-Times…

The provisions that were taken out of the bill include those that would have lowered sentencing for those charged with more serious drug offenses. The initial language would have lowered the minimums depending on the charge. Provisions that would have lowered the offense classifications for drug offenses were also removed, the governor’s office and one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Raoul, said.

“What we were trying to do was take more of a judicious approach on those cases, not to let drug dealers off the hook,” Raoul said, while noting the negotiations with the governor’s office were productive.

“In my conversations with the governor’s office, historically, they have been clear that they want to work progressively, incrementally, on the criminal justice reforms so they had to proceed cautiously to do so,” Raoul said. “My preference would be to attempt to take a more aggressive bite out of the prison population. … I understand and appreciate that we’re doing this work on criminal justice reform. It’s not easy politically.”

An example of the change included a sentencing guideline that would have provided a range of six to 30 years for someone charged with manufacturing and delivering heroin amounts from 15-100 grams. It would have kept the same guidelines for those charged with between 15 and 400 grams of heroin — allowing for more drugs under the same sentencing guideline range.

The state’s attorneys deserve a lot of credit here. They didn’t argue for removing the penalty reductions, the governor did. In the past, they were always a stubborn obstacle to criminal justice reforms, but they’ve worked hard for the past couple of years to find ways to compromise.

* Related…

* Black State Legislators Talk Criminal Justice Reform

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:21 am

Comments

On behalf of the State’s Attorneys, thank you for the acknowledgement of our efforts.

Comment by Matt Jones Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:26 am
Criminal justice is an area that Governor Rauner has been struggling to help create and pass better solutions for all parties. Good.

Comment by walker Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:32 am
In line with Rich’s sentiment about the need for honest debate, I urge you to read the bill and understand it. It does not require gun criminals serve longer prison sentences, rather it gives judges discretion to give them a longer sentence. It’s another punt.

Comment by for real Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:37 am
I see the bill as being mainly reactive in its approach rather than proactive in reducing gun deaths in Chicago.

Comment by Illinois Native Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:46 am
For real:

This is as good as it’s going to get. Liberals (and moderate Republicans) are tired of jacking up sentences for crimes. The zeitgeist is in the opposite direction. It’s really hard for a lot of them to vote on a sentence increase. Then you have conservatives wary about singling out guns and gun crimes. This is an incredibly difficult political balance.

Comment by PJ Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:48 am
So the governor asked that sentencing reduction provisions for drug crimes that his own criminal justice reform commission recommended be removed from the bill before he would support it, right?

Comment by Roman Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 11:49 am
This bill is WEAK!

Comment by Rocky Rosi Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 12:12 pm
PJ - This bill doesn’t include real reforms and it doesn’t actually increase sentences. It’s political cover disguised as criminal reform. The Governor’s own people have proposed doing more than this, but this is the result of the Governor negotiating with the Senate? Weak sauce. This isn’t as good as it gets, and if you think it is we’ll never have the criminal justice reform.

Comment by for real Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 12:38 pm
- Roman -

Yes. This is what passes for a Rauner legislative victory — when he successfully negotiates against himself. Kinda like the Exelon bill.

Comment by Anon414 Friday, Apr 7, 17 @ 12:42 pm
From the Crusader article linked here about the Black Caucus event in Chicago, “Led by Chicago Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th); State Reps. Elgie Sims (34th Dist.), Juliana Stratton (5th Dist.) and LaShawn K. Ford (8th Dist.); Victor Dickson, president and CEO of the Safer Foundation; State Sen. Kwame Raoul (13th Dist.); and Natalie Howse, president of the Cook County Bar Association, the symposium’s agenda featured panels addressing policing, re-entry into society and sentencing and bail reform.”

How is it that Elgie Sims and Kwame Raoul are portrayed as the great civil rights protectors of the black community, when their SB1304 Body Cam bill has no criminal penalties for deleting video or disabling cameras? Right now there is a grand jury investigating Chicago police disabling cams in the Laquan McDonald shooting. It looks like these two legislators cooperate with the police unions to decrease accountability.

More from the Crusader article, “She specifically highlighted how African-American teens and young adults in Cook County who possess a firearm—regardless of reason—are being negatively impacted at an alarming rate. She said because of mandatory minimums, second chances are non-existent and would prefer to see youth participate in a program like Cook County’s boot camp or receive parole instead of jail time.”

Where is the opposition from NRA on mandatory minimums for UUW? Thousands of otherwise legit citizens have felony convictions since George Ryan made UUW a felony in 1995.

When NRA needs face men for lawsuits against Chicago, it uses black residents like Otis McDonald, Shawn Gowder, and Rhonda Ezell. When bad bills come up that might catch up ordinary gun owners, NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde cuts deals with Raoul not to oppose his gun crime penalty enhancements, since most NRA members in Illinois live in all-white small towns outside Chicago. Playing both sides as always.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 10, 17 @ 1:56 pm