Pritzker order calls gun violence a public health crisis, lays out
prevention approach
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[November 02, 2021]
By JERRY NOWICKI
Capitol News Illinois
jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker signed an
executive order Monday classifying ongoing gun violence in Illinois as a
public health crisis and announced his intent to include greater funding
for violence-prevention initiatives in upcoming budgets.
At a news conference in Chicago, Pritzker touted the Reimagine Public
Safety Act which became law in June and aims to create a “comprehensive
approach to ending Illinois' firearm violence epidemic,” according to
the act.
Chicago has seen 686 murders in 2021, up from the pace of one year ago,
when it recorded 774 murders, a more-than 50 percent increase from the
506 murders recorded in 2019, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Gun violence is devastating communities, neighborhoods, blocks and
families,” Pritzker said at the news conference. “Mothers, fathers,
brothers, friends, are experiencing senseless tragedies in the deaths
and serious injuries of their loved ones. This work is urgent.”
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The violence is worse in Black and brown communities, Pritzker said,
noting, “young Black men die from gun violence at a rate 20 times higher
than their white counterparts.”
“This must stop,” he said. “In Chicago, Peoria, East St. Louis,
Champaign, Decatur and Rockford, in every region of the state and this
nation, in communities large and small, because every part of the nation
shares the history of institutionalized racism in housing, health care,
job opportunities and family support services that shaped this moment.”
Pritzker said this year’s state budget includes $50 million to fund the
programs laid out in the act, adding that his administration will push
for another $100 million to be allocated to it each of the next two
years.
All told, Pritzker’s office said the state has invested $507 million in
violence prevention, diversion and youth employment programs for the
current fiscal year, including $125 million funded through the federal
American Rescue Plan Act.
One of the major tenets of the Reimagine Public Safety Act is that it
creates the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention within the Illinois
Department of Human Services to coordinate the state’s violence
prevention efforts. That office, and its assistant secretary of firearm
violence prevention, has grant-making authority to distribute the state
funds to violence prevention organizations.
Per the governor’s news release, the state plans to begin issuing
notices of funding opportunity in the final two months of this year,
with a goal of outreach ramping up by summer 2022.
Pritzker named Chris Patterson to head the violence prevention effort at
IDHS. One of his responsibilities, per the act, is to focus on the most
violent neighborhoods in Chicago and across the state as measured by the
number of per capita shootings from 2016 to 2020.
“Our work will begin in the most impacted communities in Chicago and
across the state,” Patterson said at the news conference Monday. “This
will include high-risk youth intervention services, violence prevention
and interruption, and trauma recovery.
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“The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention will help experts and expert
grassroots organizations connect to people at the highest risks of gun
violence victimization and take strong measures to reduce their exposure
to chronic gun violence.”
He said the new office expects to be able to provide grants to
organizations in 22 areas of Chicago and 15 communities across the rest
of the state. Those organizations must take a data-driven approach to
addressing the most violent areas, per the law.
Each year, the office must report to the General Assembly on Jan. 1,
explaining the investments being made and making further recommendations
on how to end gun violence.
Youth development programs in violent areas will be a major part of the
law’s implementation as well.
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![](../images/110221PIX/news_y9.jpg)
Gov. JB Pritzker signs an executive order Monday
which aims to implement the Reimagine Public Safety Act to curb gun
violence and classify gun violence as a public health crisis.
(Credit: Illinois.gov)
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State Sen. Robert Peters, a Chicago Democrat whose
name often appears on the state’s transformative criminal justice
policies, ushered the policy through the Senate.
“This is a big win for working class Black, Latino
and rural white communities,” Peters said at the news conference.
“The status quo policies are failing us. We see this in every corner
and every ZIP code of our state. The status quo agenda is bad for
public safety. We are seeing young people who are stuck, who are
hurting, asking us to step up.”
Rep. Justin Slaughter, a Chicago Democrat and the bill’s House
sponsor, said it will take more than state action to curb gun crime.
He praised county and city leaders, including Chicago Mayor Lori
Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, for
appearing alongside state leaders and advocates Monday.
The new law and the executive order from the governor, Slaughter
said, are part of an essential effort to redefine gun violence as a
health crisis which “is all about the social determinants of
health.”
“And what that means is education, economic development, housing,
public health, environment. It's all of these different issues and
factors,” he said.
He said Illinois wants to be a national leader in gun violence
prevention.
“This means prioritizing best practices, and also encouraging
emerging practices,” he said. “As we onboard new and innovative
ideas in this space, fiscal responsibility is ever paramount. And
it's absolutely critical that we engage in programs that are proven
to be effective.”
Pritzker’s executive order is designed to help expedite
implementation of the Reimagine Public Safety Act and to lay out
some of the expectations for collaboration between state agencies.
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The news conference came the Monday after the General Assembly’s
fall veto session adjourned and Republicans tried, to no avail, to
get Democratic committee chairs to call a number of public safety
reforms and sentence enhancements for committee hearings.
That package includes a bill that would appropriate $100 million to
the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board to fund
grants to local departments for gang violence, carjacking and motor
vehicle theft prevention, as well as officer staffing.
The GOP, led by Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, also pushed for
measures eliminating good time sentence reductions for someone who
brought a weapon to a penal institution or attacked a law officer.
Another Republican-backed bill would require a minimum 10-year
sentence for aggravated discharge of a firearm, use of a stolen or
illegally acquired firearm in an offense, unlawful possession of a
weapon by a felon, armed habitual criminal offenses, or aggravated
hijacking or carjacking. A second such offense would come with a
life sentence.
GOP leaders have criticized Democrats for not even allowing the
public safety reforms to have a public hearing. Peters and
Slaughter, however, have been critical of the GOP push, which Peters
alluded to Monday as an effort to “double down on the status quo.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
news service covering state government and distributed to more than
400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois
Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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