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RAUNER
SIGNS BILL TO GIVE EX-OFFENDERS ACCESS TO STATE-ISSUED IDS
Illinois Policy Institute
Senate Bill 3368 will ensure former inmates
leaving Illinois’ prisons have state-issued identification, which will
assist their re-entry into their communities and make it easier for them
to apply for jobs or housing.
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 Ex-offenders in Illinois can now receive state-issued identification cards after
completing their sentences or being released on parole.
This is a small but important step, as government IDs are necessary for anyone
looking for a job or a place to live. Obtaining these essentials makes it much
more likely that an ex-offender won’t end up back behind bars.
Nearly half of Illinois’ ex-offenders return to prison within three years of
their release – often because it’s hard for them to find work. But the Safer
Foundation reported in 2008 that just 18 percent of its clients who found work
ended up incarcerated again within three years of release.
Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the ID bill into law Dec. 7. This legislation, Senate
Bill 3368, was part of a package of three bills aimed at improving re-entry
success for ex-offenders, which the governor and members of the General Assembly
presented in March.
On Aug. 19, Rauner signed into law Senate Bill 3164, which discourages judges
from sentencing low-level offenders to prison if other ways to address the
crime, such as probation, would suffice.
Senate Bill 3294, which would allow the Illinois Department of Corrections to
set conditions of parole and mandatory supervised release, including using home
detention and electronic monitoring options for some offenders, stalled in
April.
One of Rauner’s first public goals upon taking office was to reduce the state’s
prison population by 25 percent by 2025. Re-entry reforms such as SB 3368 are
important first steps, but much more must happen for Illinois to realize this
goal.
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Politicians should embrace sealing reform, which gives ex-offenders
the chance to apply to have their records sealed, making finding a
good job much likelier.
Policymakers should also welcome alternatives to incarceration
when they make sense. Restorative justice is one such program, which
helps victims as well as offenders by bringing both parties together
(if they consent) to come up with a plan to compensate the victim
for the damage done to him or her by the offender.
Another important alternative is Adult Redeploy, a state initiative
that helps counties invest resources in alternatives to
incarceration, focusing on solutions that help offenders quit
repeating the same mistake over and over – while also saving
taxpayers money. The program saved Illinois $76 million from
2011-2015, according to new data from the Illinois Criminal Justice
Information Authority.
The program distributed $15.5 million in grants to achieve these
results, which placed 2,500 nonviolent offenders in targeted
programs to treat issues like addiction and mental health disorders,
which may be contributing to individuals’ criminal activity.
Illinois needs reforms like these to prevent expensive – and often
counterproductive – incarceration of those whose crimes are better
addressed through other means, and to help ex-offenders turn around
their lives and become productive members of their communities.
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