A new report entitled Best Practice Standards: The Proper Use of Criminal Records in Hiring has been released, comprised of contributions from the Legal Action Center's National H.I.R.E. Network, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the National Workrights Institute. Hiring new employees is a critically important function in any business, government agency, or non-profit organization. Every hiring decision represents a major investment that employers must make with limited information. Checking criminal history is just a small part of this process, which may also include verifying education, prior employment and other reference information. The Best Practice Standards is designed to help employers properly weigh adverse personal history to find those applicants who will contribute most to the productivity of the organization.

The John Howard Association recently released a monitoring report on the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice covering 2012-13, Moving Beyond Transition. JHA's findings include chronically low but improving mental health staffing levels, improved data collection that is nonetheless not readily available to stakeholders and public, strengthened oversight through greater accountability from service providers and increased use of outside evaluators, expansion of its aftercare program to enhance treatment and reentry outcomes for youth on parole, persistent reports of misuse and overuse of youth confinement along with evidence of deescalation techniques instead of confinement, and evidence that minority youth of color are much less likely to be identified as having mental health needs and provided with services than their white peers.

JHA also released its monitoring report on the Northern Reception and Classification facility, the state's larges male intake facility. Located approximately 45 minutes outside of Chicago in Joliet, it is adjacent to the Stateville Correctional Center, and is the entrance to the state's correctional system for 85-90 percent of IDOC inmates, nearly 2,000 per month. The organization's findings include chronically low healthcare staffing levels; reliance upon inmate self-reports for mental and medical health conditions because no reliable system exists to pass information between county jails, mental health facilities, and the prison system; and housing in overflow areas such as gymnasiums and classrooms.

The Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, in conjunction with several other agencies and organizations, will host an Adult and Juvenile Expungement Summit and Ex-Offender Job Information Seminar. Application preparation and filing only applies to incidents that occurred in Cook County, Illinois. Click here for a flyer with more info.

Saturday, June 8
8:30AM - 6:00PM
New Faith Baptist Church International
29 S. Central Ave.
Matteson, IL

Located six hours from Chicago, Menard Correctional Center (Menard) is the largest maximum-security prison within the Illinois Department of Corrections. The John Howard Association (JHA) recently released a report that documents their monitoring visit to Menard. In the report, JHA cites many concerns with the 135 year old facility. Authors point out that the facility has serious maintenance needs that will cost the state $12 million, and that because of historic inadequate staffing levels and highly publicized incidents or staff misconduct, inmates do not trust the internal discipline or grievance procedures. However, the closures of other Illinois facilities have allowed staff to transfer to Menard, alleviating the staffing issue, and, since 2011, administrators have been working with staff to increase communication and accountability. Read the full report here.

Housing voucher recipients do cause an increase in neighborhood crime, but tend to find housing in already high-crime communities according to a new report from the Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy's Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy. In Investigating the Relationship Between Housing Voucher Use and Crime, authors found that crime rates were high in neighborhoods with a high percentage of voucher holders before voucher recipients settled in them. These findings question whether the voucher program is succeeding in helping recipients reach safer, more advantaged neighborhoods, and debunks the myth that housing voucher recipients increase neighborhood crime. Access the report here.

A new report from The Sentencing Project suggests that while the initiative known as Justice Reinvestment has helped open a dialogue about justice system reform, it has not produced significant reductions in state correctional populations. Ending Mass Incarceration: Charting a New Justice Reinvestment highlights actions states can take to achieve the Justice Reinvestment initiative’s original mission, which is based on the principal of cutting justice system budgets and reinvesting the savings into communities that have the highest rates of incarceration. Authors suggest that states reduce all forms of incarceration and correctional supervision, reinvest in high incarceration communities, involve stakeholders and non-governmental entities in the planning and implementation processes, and create a multi-year plan for implementation and evaluation. Access the report here.

Legislation that would increase mandatory sentences by 1-2 years for unlawful use of weapons (UUW) offenses and subject them to truth-in-sentencing provisions (which would require people convicted of UUW offenses to serve 85 percent of their sentence) has been introduced in both the Illinois House and Senate. Supported by Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, these bills would have tremendous effects on the prison population and the Department of Corrections' budget. The Illinois Office of Management and Budget estimates that the law would cost more than $1 billion over ten years and increase the prison population by 4,000 people, forcing the construction of new prisons. IACJ encourages you to contact your State Senator and Representative and tell them that HB2265 and SB1003 are reactionary responses that will not deter crime and will cost the state millions. To access a memo from the John Howard Association, click here. To access a JHA fact sheet, click here. To read the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council analysis of the bill, click here. To use the ILGA Legislator Lookup Tool, click here.

In Illinois, 17-year-olds charged with felony crimes are tried in adult courts. However, new legislation introduced by State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie would raise the age of juvenile court to 18 for all offenses except when those youth are transferred to adult courts(serious, violent felonies are automatically transferred to adult court). IACJ encourages you to contact your State Representative and urge him or her to support HB 2404. Click here to access a fact sheet and other pertinent information from the Juvenile Justice Initiative.

Where repealing mandatory minimum sentencing laws is not possible because of political or legislative realities, advocates should push for “safety valve” laws, says a new report from Families Against Mandatory Minimums. A safety valve law allows sentencing courts to depart from statutorily assigned mandatory minimum sentences if certain requirements are met. The report highlights a federal safety law that went into effect in 1994 and allows judges to shorten sentences for individuals with first-time, low-level drug offenses. The report also underscores efforts in eight states to use safety valve laws to increase public safety and judicial discretion, and save on correctional spending. For example, in 2010, Minnesota saved $37.5 million and 1,200 prison beds, while violent crime declined. To read the full report, click here.

Only 5 percent of kids are arrested for violent crimes, but the other 95 percent often face the same fate, according to a new national communications project from the MacArthur Foundation. Mistakes Kids Make asks visitors about mistakes they made as children in order to spur conversations about the ways in which society often criminalizes those mistakes. The campaign website, which advocates juvenile justice reform, includes a survey, relevant statistics, stories about successful adults who made mistakes when they were younger, and a petition that visitors may sign to pledge to stand up to government decisions that criminalize youth mistakes. Click here to visit the website.