Spring 2025 Illinois Justice Reform Legislation - Take Action!

Illinois Legislation - Spring Session Ends May 31.

Many bills are in review April 13 - May 13, 2025

NOW IS A CRITICAL TIME TO USE THE CONVENIENT LINKS BELOW to contact your Illinois legislators directly to ask for their support for several of the important justice reform bills being considered in the spring session of General Assembly. 

Automating Expungement and Sealing of Criminal Records in Illinois – Contact your state legislators now at this link: https://secure.everyaction.com/4Lu0wbj26U-t56nL87x7ew2#! to support Illinois legislation, following the example of other states, to eliminate the (often prohibitively complicated) extra procedures that are now required for the individual to obtain the expungement and sealing to which he or she is entitled is entitled under the law.

Improving Public Defense - Contact your state legislators now using this action tool to support the FAIR Act, HB3162 and SB2403, for reforming the structure and funding of the Public Defender System in Illinois. This is a top legislative priority in Illinois for current session of the General Assembly.

          -  You can access the fact sheet here and the campaign website to learn more about the bill, and here is coverage from the Chicago Reader of “Illinois’s Public Defense Crisis,” as well as a link to the handouts from the recent Statewide Summit on the Future of Public Defense in Illinois

Investing in Housing Support for Returning Residents – go to this Coalition Form to add your organization to the Home for Good Coalition, and contact your legislators directly through https://www.illinoispolicy.org/maps/ to ask them to support HB3162 and SB2403, which would invest in housing support for people returning from prison. Learn more about these bills and the problems they would address at the new Home For Good website or by accessing the Home For Good Fact Sheet at:  https://illinoisjusticeproject.box.com/s/w0gero8elvsxlw8v55wrv192zacp9voz

Ending Lifelong Financial Punishment by Abolishing All Fees for All Public Conviction Registries – Please go to this link to connect directly with your state senator and state representative to ask for their support SB2197 / HB3469, which would end lifelong registration fees for those convicted of crime, and where you will also find this SB2197 / HB3469 fact sheet with more information about the importance of this legislation.

Community Based Corrections Act, creating an alternative to incarceration for young offenders – Go to  https://gov.illinois.gov/contact-us/voice-an-opinion.html to contact Governor Pritzker, and to https://www.illinoispolicy.org/maps/ to send messages to your State Representatives and State Senators asking for their support for HB0044/SB0237, which would create an official legal pathway for judges to sentence eligible justice-entangled youth ages 18 to 25 to community-based programs, such as those offered by the Lawndale Christian Legal Center - https://lclc.net/, rather than to prison facilities.

Preserving Mail to Prisoners -  Please use this link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protect-physical-mail-for-people-in-idoc/ to write to your legislators and urge them to support HB 3713, which would 

         -  protect the right of people who are incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections to receive their original, physical mail, and would

         -  ensure that people who are incarcerated can stay connected with their support network without losing access due to disciplinary sanctions

Restore Justice issued this statement (read it here) opposing the Department of Corrections proposals to stop the delivery of physical mail and permanently replace it with scanned copies.

Sentence Review for Young Offenders - Please use this link to reach out to your state representative and ask for their support on HB 3332, - which would create a limited opportunity for people 20 years and younger at the time of their offense to petition the court for their sentence to be reviewed. Learn more here.

NOTE: This information is courtesy of the Black Lives Matter Committee at University Church Chicago.