Reforms
The Illinois Justice Project (ILJP) is dedicated to transforming Illinois’ criminal legal system. Through advocacy and strategic partnerships, ILJP has helped champion groundbreaking reforms that prioritize equity, justice, and human dignity.
Pretrial Fairness Act/SAFE-T Act
ILJP worked with partners to pass the Pretrial Fairness Act, a major reform of the Illinois courts system that went into effect in September 2023 and made Illinois the first state in the country to eliminate cash bail. Under the new system, only those who are deemed a danger to the public or a flight risk are detained pending resolution of a criminal case. Critically, the reform reduces the financial hardship and systemic inequities of the system by eliminating the practice of holding people in jail if they can’t post enough money to be released.
ILJP worked with numerous reform partners to create this sweeping change, including as a founding member of the Coalition to End Money Bond (CEMB), which had already championed other bail reforms, including successfully advocating for the end to setting cash bail amounts for detainees facing misdemeanor charges.
In the first year under the Pretrial Fairness Act, jail populations around the state have declined and, critically, money that would have been spent paying bail for the release of people with pending charges remained in community. The impact of the reform continues to be the focus of evaluations by researchers at Loyola University’s Center for Criminal Justice. In addition, the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services has launched a data dashboard so the public can also track the implementation.
R3: Restore. Reinvest. Renew.
When Illinois legalized cannabis in 2020, ILJP joined with partners to ensure that taxes generated from the new revenue would be redirected to the communities that had suffered the most harm in the government’s War on Drugs. Under the R3: Restore. Reinvest. Renew, 25 percent of all cannabis revenue is set aside for grant awards to communities experiencing economic disinvestment and violence. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority administers the competitive program that has provided over $200 million in grants for violence prevention, legal aid, and reentry services. The innovative program limits R3 investments to communities that are rigorously defined by specific metrics and allows community organizations to identify solutions to invest in, rather than the state telling them how to improve their neighborhoods.
Department of Juvenile Justice
For the past two decades, ILJP has worked with policymakers from both political parties in Illinois to reform the juvenile justice system.
A landmark reform came in 2005, when ILJP (then part of Chicago Metropolis 2020), along with other advocate groups, worked to separate the Youth Division from the adult functions of the Illinois Department of Corrections and to create a new Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ). After about 18 months of policy design and work with the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office, the new IDJJ was created, ensuring a system that was designed around the specific needs of youth and their families. In the ensuing years, the population of juvenile prisons has gone from more than 2,000 to about 170, two youth prisons have closed, and a transformation plan for the entire system was announced in 2020 and is now underway. One youth facility will be converted into an educational hub and another will provide specially designed programming for emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 25 who are now in IDOC.
Illinois Reentry Council
The Illinois Reentry Council (IRC) was founded in 2021 as an outgrowth of a reentry housing task force. It has grown to more than 200 members and four work groups that meet regularly to collaborate on how to ensure the reentry system in Illinois creates opportunity not harm. The work is focused on creating strong secure pathways for people who are navigating a return home from prison.
Through its work, the IRC is also challenging the misperceptions that exist about people who have been incarcerated by elevating their voices.
That experts estimate there are 1,300 Illinois laws that directly impacts the reentry journey of people with criminal record, preventing them from fully participating in the economy or even in family life when they return home from prison.