Prisoner Review Board reform, changes to police hiring clear General
Assembly
[May 21, 2025]
By Bridgette Fox, Ben Szalinski
SPRINGFIELD — A long-awaited bill to reform the Prisoner Review Board
will soon go to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk after receiving approval in the
legislature Tuesday.
The House voted 74-37 to approve Senate Bill 19, which contains a series
of reforms designed to include victims’ participation in Prisoner Review
Board decisions. The measure now needs only a signature from the
governor to become law.
The bill would give victims the right to file victim impact statements
ahead of hearings, provide them with additional notice when their
offender is granted early release, and allow them to seek an order of
protection against an offender who is incarcerated.
It would also create the Office of the Director of Victim and Witness
Services, which would ensure the board complies with victims’ rights,
and mandates the board provide victims with contact information for the
State Victim Assistance Hotline.
The bill also extends the terms for PRB members from six to eight years.
“The bulk of this bill is focused on … making sure that victims,
survivors, are more engaged in the process at PRB because unfortunately,
too often, we’ve heard from victims and family members that they simply
haven’t been given a voice in this process,” bill sponsor Rep. Will
Guzzardi, D-Chicago, said.
Reforms pushed by the General Assembly last year failed to advance to
the governor’s desk despite nearly unanimous support from the
legislature. Pritzker opposed a requirement in the bill that board
hearings to be livestreamed, and the bill was never called for a vote in
the final days of last year’s session.
Guzzardi said the bill passed Tuesday includes many of the portions
lawmakers agreed on last year, but many Republicans have expressed
concerns the latest version was too weak compared to the previous
version.
The reforms come after Crosetti Brand allegedly murdered an 11-year-old
Chicago boy in 2024. That February, the board voted to release Brand,
finding there was not enough evidence he had violated his conditions of
release. His ex-girlfriend, Laterria Smith, was denied an emergency
order of protection by a Cook County judge while Brand was imprisoned at
Stateville in Crest Hill.
Brand was charged with attacking Smith the day after his release and
killing her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins, who attempted to protect
his mother. Two PRB members, including the board chair, resigned in the
wake of the incident.
Brand’s history of domestic violence against women prompted both
advocates and lawmakers to call for stricter review of prisoners’
backgrounds before their release.
Response to Sonya Massey’s death
Another bill needing only the governor’s signature to become law would
change hiring practices for law enforcement agencies after it passed
through the House on May 15.
Senate Bill 1953 would require all law enforcement agencies in the state
to obtain all of the investigations, examinations and records about a
potential hire from all entities that previously employed them. Previous
employers and law enforcement agencies are required to release the
information within two weeks of receiving such a request.
Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, has been pushing for legislation in
response to the death of Sonya Massey, a Springfield resident who was
shot and killed in her home by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy in
July 2024.
The former sheriff’s deputy, Sean Grayson, was originally called to
Massey’s home in Springfield about reports of a prowler. After not
finding anything outside, Grayson and his partner spoke with Massey
inside her home.
The deputies stood in the living room while Massey, with permission,
removed a pot of boiling water from the stove in the adjoined kitchen.
Massey said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” after comments from
deputies about the hot water, then Grayson threatened to shoot her. Body
camera video showed Grayson shooting her seconds after the threat as
Massey apologized.
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State Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, discusses his bill to make
changes to transparency requirements at the Illinois Prisoner Review
Board on the floor of the Illinois House on Tuesday, May 20.
(Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)
Grayson is awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges and has pleaded
not guilty.
Following Massey’s death, Capitol News Illinois unearthed documents
showing Grayson was disciplined at a previous job for disobeying orders
from superiors, general aggression and posting about drug busts online.
Grayson was also found to have lied about being honorably discharged
from the Army.
The measure passed through the House on a vote of 101-12.
“We can’t legislate for judgment,” said the bill’s House sponsor Kam
Buckner, D-Chicago, during a news conference last week. “What we can do
is make sure that the answer that we got from the Sangamon County
Sheriff’s Department was that they did not know. That will no longer be
the case when we pass this bill.”
Turner sponsored another bill in response to Massey’s death that would
give Sangamon County residents the power to recall an elected official,
like the sheriff. Cook County already has the power to hold recall
votes.
Senate Bill 1954 passed through the Senate but hasn’t made its way
through a House committee, meaning its passage could be an uphill
battle.
“It’s not done for this year,” Buckner said. “We just need to figure out
what’s going to happen in these next couple of weeks.”
Tornado-safe warehouses
A mile-wide EF3 tornado tore through St. Louis on Friday afternoon
before crossing into Illinois and inflicting more damage in parts of
Madison County. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado
passed less than a mile from a complex of warehouses where a man was
killed when a similar strength tornado demolished an Amazon warehouse in
December 2021.
In response to the 2021 tornado, Illinois lawmakers convened a task
force to issue recommendations on how to make warehouses safer in a
tornado. In response to those recommendations, the House voted 83-28
Tuesday to pass House Bill 2987, which creates a series of new
requirements warehouses must follow to protect their employees during a
tornado warning.
“It’s very timely that I’m calling this today as I spent part of my
Friday and the last three weekends hunkered down in the basement with a
tornado coming through my area,” Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville,
said.
The bill now heads to the Senate. It requires warehouse operators to
work with local first responder agencies to craft safety plans for
severe weather. New warehouses would need to be built with shelter
spaces compliant with building codes for tornadoes and other types of
natural disasters.
The 2021 tornado hit as the Amazon warehouse was bustling ahead of the
holidays. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado
traveled through the south half of the building. The tornado first
impacted the west-facing wall, causing it to collapse. That caused other
structural failures, including the roof to collapse.
An Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into
Amazon did not find any violations, according to the task force report.
OSHA recommended the company review its severe weather procedures,
ensure employees are provided training and participate in drills, have
site-specific information about severe weather plans, and ensure audible
warning devices are accessible. The warehouse was rebuilt and reopened
in September 2024.
Jade Aubrey contributed.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is
funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation. |
