Insights & Information

The University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law have compiled an extensive registry of exonerations, including more than 2,000 people falsely convicted of serious crimes over the past two decades, according to an Associated Press article appearing on WashingtonPost.com. The 873 exonerated defendants whose cases had the most detailed evidence spent a combined total of more than 10,000 years in prison, or an average of 11 years each. While strides are being made in bringing justice to the wrongfully convicted, University of Michigan law professor Samuel Gross said, “We know there are many more we haven’t found.”

Illinois Senate Bill 3423, which corrects an omission in a previous law related to drug treatment for methamphetamine users, recently passed both the House and Senate and is being sent to the Governor for signature. Sponsored by Senator Tom Johnson and Representative Chapin Rose, Senate Bill 3423 brings in line the penalty for first-time, low-level, non-violent meth possession with that for other drugs (for example, heroin and cocaine). In 2005, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act to combat the rising tide of meth use and distribution, particularly in rural regions of Illinois. The provisions of the 2005 Act unintentionally excluded low-level and first-time meth possession offenders from eligibility for Illinois' long-standing treatment alternatives to incarceration program. The bill corrects this exclusion and could save Illinois millions of dollars by redirecting eligible individuals into supervised community drug treatment instead of prison. For more information, visit the bill's status page.

Illinios state law has banned the practice of shackling pregnant, laboring women since 1999. This week, a federal judge approved a $4.1 million settlement to approximately 80 plaintiffs claiming that they were shackled during labor, according to an article by Colleen Mastony posted on ChicagoTribune.com. The Cook County Sheriff's Office, which operates the jail, denies the claims, and attributes its agreement to settle to the prevention of further costs of a lawsuit to taxpayers. Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM) senior policy director, Gail Smith, said, "We're very pleased the Sheriff Dart has implemented stronger protections for pregnant women. We look forward to a day that women throughout Illiois will have similar protections." Earlier this year, the use of shackles on pregnant detainees was banned in Cook County, when the Governor signed a new law. 

The Sentencing Project has published a "visual" compilation of key developments in the criminal justice system over the past several decades. It includes the rate of incarceration from 1925 to 2010, international comparisons of incarceration rates, changes in the drug offender composition of prison populations over time, racial/ethnic disparities by gender in incarceration, increases in the number of people serving life sentences and life without parole since the 1980s, trends in the number of juveniles held in adult prisons and jails since 1985, and increases in state corrections expenditures from 1985 to 2010. To access the full report, click here.

Recent results from an annual drug survey show that more than 60% of adults males arrested in 10 U.S. cities tested positive for any of ten illicit drugs. The figures ranged from 64% of arrests in Atlanta to 81% in Sacramento. Chicago arrestees tested positive at the very high end of that range, with 80.5% testing positive. The findings demonstrate the important relationship between addiction and criminal behavior, and suggest that drug treatment plays a key role in reducing crime rates. To read media reports on the survey results, click here and here.

In February, the John Howard Association (JHA) visited three Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) southern facilities: IYC-Harrisburg, IYC-Murphysboro, and IYC-Pere Marquette, and have released a report with the group's findings and assessment of these facilities. The report includes focus on treatment programs, education, vocational programs, re-entry preparation, staff/youth relations, and physical conditions. JHA recommended areas for improvement at all three facilities, but also reports that they were impressed by many of the programs administered. The group advocates for continued efforts in youth re-entry preparation and supports the Governor's plan to close two of the facilities. To read the full report, click here.

SB 2621 passed the Illinois Senate this week, and is now headed to the House for consideration. Sponsored by Sen. Kwame Raoul and Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the proposal addresses the crowded conditions in Illinois prisons, where the population has spiked to 49,000 in a system designed to hold about 34,000. Forty percent of those currently incarcerated are being held for non-violent offenses. Restoring the prison population to its 2009 numbers will save taxpayers more than $150 million annually. By establishing a responsible sentence credit system, SB2621 will provide a safe, cost-effective way to reduce the prison population. For more information and updates on the bill's progress, visit the Coalition for Prison Reform or the bill's status page.

The Yale Law Journal is accepting submissions for its Prison Law Writing Contest. The contest is open to individuals either currently in jail or prison, or who have been recently released. To enter, write and submit a short essay about your experiences with the law, answering one of several provided questions. The top three submissions will win cash prizes, and the winner may be published. The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2012. To read about the contest in more detail, including a list of possible essay topics, rules and guidelines, and where to submit entries, click here.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) has published a report, "Prison Bed Profiteers: How Corporations are Reshaping Criminal Justice in the U.S." which illustrates how private prisons managed by corporations are thwarting public safety and criminal justice reform efforts. Funded by the Public Welfare Foundation, the report provides recommendations for slowing the growth of private prisons and improving existing facilities. This report and others on child welfare, juvenile justice, criminal justice, analytics, education, adult protection, and more can be downloaded from NCCD's new website, www.nccdglobal.org.

Lawmakers in Springfield are pushing for a legislative reform to make it more difficult for debt collectors to jail low-income individuals who do not meet payment deadlines, according to an article published in the Herald-News and Chicago Sun-Times. The proposal would require court notices to be served to the individuals' homes rather than simply mailed, and would mandate that arrest warrants expire after one year. According to Attorney General Lisa Madigan, informal proceedings in Illinois courtrooms utilized by debt collectors are what have allowed such abuses to occur. "More people are unemployed, more people are struggling financially and more creditors are trying to get their debt paid," Madigan said. To read the full article, click here.