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* I linked to the governor’s transition reports, but we haven’t really talked much about any of them except for the budget stuff. So, let’s start by going over the Restorative Justice report. Here’s the section on coping with and preventing violence…
The state can help reduce violence in communities by strengthening existing safeguards towards gun violence prevention efforts, pursuing new safeguards, and investing in community resources to prevent crime. For example, increased regulations on gun dealers, stricter reporting requirements for lost firearms, and establishing stronger Firearm Owners Identification card (FOID) requirements (accounting for hate crimes, animal abuse, and domestic violence and expanding requirements to cover 3D-printed and “ghost” guns) could keep guns out of the hands of people likely to use them illegally. The state could also convene a multi-state task force to reduce the illegal flow of weapons across state borders. In addition, measures such as better allocation of police resources to every zip code and expedited forensics tasks such as DNA-evidence processing, rape kit administration, and ballistics testing could significantly improve violence prevention and resolution.
The state could promote grassroots efforts to reduce crime and prevent gun violence, such as expanding prevention programs and resources in the neighborhoods at highest risk for gun violence (e.g., funding grassroots non-profit violence prevention programs). Resources could be allocated to transformative “Community Justice Centers” to provide civilian responses to violent incidents, including giving civilians access to resources and referrals, and offering holistic support. Trust can also be strengthened between law enforcement and the communities they serve if Illinois State Police take a larger role in investigating “use of force” incidents.
Community-based organizations should also be supported by the state in their work to provide mentoring, tutoring, and job-search support. The state could empower local organizations to support people returning from incarceration, helping them meet their needs for housing, mental health counseling, job placement, and other social services.
* Modernizing courts and sentencing reform…
Through thoughtful court and sentence reform, the state could move towards a system that reserves incarceration primarily for those who commit very serious offenses. The reform could focus on treatment and rehabilitation, while diverting individuals to alternative treatment centers (e.g., over 40 percent of admissions to Cook County jails were for drug offenses, many of whom could have been diverted to community drug treatment resources) and ensuring fairness and equity before and after trial.
To start, the state can increase felony thresholds for drug (e.g., Class 3 and 4 drug offenses diverted to drug treatment) and retail-theft offenses (e.g., raise retail theft threshold from $300 to a higher level), which can mitigate the punitive nature of current sentencing guidelines and decrease the number of incarcerated individuals. For those already incarcerated, the state can re-evaluate early-release eligibility to focus on rehabilitation. Potential initiatives could include bypassing parole and auto-expunging criminal cases for eligible cases (e.g., certain Class 4 felonies), using clemency power to commute certain sentences (e.g., incarcerated people in need of hospice care), and expanding eligibility for discretionary and reduced parole.
Prison population reduction strategies may be more effective when partnered with treatment through supportive transition programs that include housing and job placements. The state could mandate restorative justice as a holistic rehabilitative substitute for incarceration (e.g., pre-trial referrals to community centers for certain offense types). State agencies can support transformational alternatives to incarcerations by engaging community-based resources such as mental health and substance abuse treatment centers. As part of this transformation, key actors (e.g., judges, community residents, law enforcement, social workers) could be convened in working groups to recommend actions to protect and heal communities.
To ensure fairness and equity before and during trials, the state should facilitate equitable access to and adequate funding for resources such as public defenders. In addition, Illinois should reexamine current juvenile detention practices through trauma-informed ways (e.g., end detention for children under the age of 15) and end trial tax incentivizing pleas. The state could also examine current monetary bond practices and reduce or eliminate the use of fines and fees for offenses such as driving infractions. Finally, the state could eliminate automatic driver’s license suspensions for court debt and make probation and parole less punitive and more rehabilitative by eliminating reincarceration for technical parole violations. These changes would significantly reduce the burden on affected individuals.
The report also has a section on “evidence-based rehabilitation,” plus one on cannabis legalization and the new Office of Justice, Equity and Opportunity.
* Conclusion…
There is a path forward to move criminal justice in Illinois from one of retribution to one of economic and community restoration. These efforts can enhance resource allocation, lower recidivism, and improve outcomes for incarcerated individuals. The state could consider launching a few initiatives in the near-term which could serve as important first steps:
• Increased regulation on gun dealers and establishing a multi-state task force to reduce illegal weapons
• Medicaid access to ensure continuity of care and targeted employment and housing support provided to all individuals pre-release from IDOC
• Creating a workforce development and vocational training programs to support rehabilitation at IDOC
• Mandating training courses (e.g., social emotional learning) for stakeholders (e.g., law enforcement, correctional staff) dealing with high risk population
• Increasing certain felony thresholds (e.g., for drug offenses, retail theft)
• Evaluate and recommend changes to monetary bond policies
• Create a data repository to be used across all state and local agencies
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 8:46 am
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I had interviewed for a teaching position with a community college offering instruction in several correctional centers and found out that they had to scrounge for textbooks for every class as there was no money from the state. Couple this with the lack of federal financial aid such as pell grants and you have a lot of unmet need in the correctional system despite all the research showing how education cuts down on recidivism.
Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 8:54 am
“Medicaid access to ensure continuity of care and targeted employment and housing support provided to all individuals pre-release from IDOC”
HFS tried putting some stuff like this in the 1115 waiver, CMS shut it down. From the waiver approval letter:
“As we have discussed, at this time, CMS is not approving the state’s request for FFP for 30 days of services prior to release for individuals who are incarcerated due to the inmate exclusion.”
Comment by Perrid Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:19 am
The dilemma w/committee members who actually do have an agenda is dealing w/disingenuous data. Their footnotes indicate data (IDOC) from June 2017. And the press release from Monday cites those numbers and gives readers a misguided palate of real time data. A simple click to IDOC’s website will give you numbers of actual prison population 3,000 LESS than the press release indicates. IDOC ADULT prison pop has been under 40k (and consistently declining) since June 2018. I’ll leave it at that. And honestly, the press should be more diligent in reporting/fact checking numbers that are fed to them and/or report the data effectively.
Comment by New Slang Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 9:41 am
I’m glad they mentioned expediting DNA and ballistics processing. The state wastes a lot of resources and court hours having to drop cases due to the inexcusable delays at the state crime labs. I’m all for sentencing reform and restorative justice, but that still requires prosecution of crimes.
Comment by Chicagonk Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:03 am
Unfortunately, there is little independent evidence that most “community-based” organizations are effective. I’m interested in what outcomes those organizations are expected to achieve, how those outcomes will be measured, and whose going to be doing the measuring.
Did we learn nothing from the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative and D.A.R.E.?
Also, keep in mind that “community-based” programs are almost by definition not scaleable citywide or statewide. That makes them a very costly way to manage and implement programs.
It might be cheaper and better to just fund what actually works and bring it to scale while giving all of the “community-based” groups a check for $10K and thank them for taking the time out of their busy day to mau-mau the flak catchers.
Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 10:30 am
“There is a path forward to move criminal justice in Illinois from one of retribution to one of economic and community restoration. These efforts can enhance resource allocation, lower recidivism, and improve outcomes for incarcerated individuals.” Every single point in here is retroactive, not preventative or proactive. It’s a great goal to get more people out of prison, but in most rural majority white counties, there is a large voting bloc of deputies, dispatchers, town cops, state’s attorneys and prison workers that are heavily invested in arresting and imprisoning as many people as possible (except their relatives). The good old boy system that controls most small town county courthouses will resist this, the same way they resist abolition of townships.
Every prison term starts with a police contact and an arrest. There is not one recommendation here for police accountability. How about mandatory body cams and felony charges for police who tamper with or delete body cams evidence? Make it a crime for police, dispatchers, or prosecutors who fail to report police abuse of citizens, and you’ll see the blue wall of silence go away overnight.
Comment by Payback Wednesday, Feb 13, 19 @ 1:35 pm