[Peace] Illinois Policy Institute: REFORMING ILLINOIS’ NONVIOLENT CLASS 4 FELONY STATUTES

[Robert Naiman]

I think these people are Republicans. But if they are Republicans who want
to spend less money on prisons by reducing the number of people who are in
them unnecessarily and counterproductively, I am all for it.

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https://www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/reforming-illinois-nonviolent-class-4-felony-statutes/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Over the past several decades, Illinois’ prison population has exploded.
Between 1984 and 2014, inmate population increased by roughly 182 percent,
while the state population only grew by 12 percent over the same time
period.

This rapid increase in the prison population has come with numerous costs
for the state: increased prison budgets, growth in the number of people
cycling in and out of prison, wasted human capital and overall strain on a
system that has become too big to manage.

One major first step in reversing this cycle is revising Illinois’
draconian sentencing rules for low-level, nonviolent drug possession and
theft crimes. People convicted of these types of crimes, or Class 4
felonies, are the biggest driver behind Illinois’ prison population growth.
Between 1989 and 2014, 55 percent of the increase in prison admissions was
due to more individuals convicted of Class 4 felonies. Today, Class 4
felony offenders make up the largest sector of incoming inmates in
Illinois, accounting for over 37.7 percent of all admissions. The
percentage of inmates incarcerated for Class 4 felonies has shot up faster
than any other felony class – these inmates made up 11.9 percent of
Illinois’ prison population as of 2013, compared with 4.1 percent in 1993.

Illinois prisons are among the most overcrowded in the nation, which is
dangerous for both inmates and staff. In 2014, the average cost of
incarcerating each inmate per year in Illinois was $21,071, and the cost of
maintaining the system ballooned to almost $1.4 billion per year. This
figure does not include additional outside costs taxpayers bear, such as
administrative costs, pension contributions, employee benefits and taxes,
retiree health care contributions, and capital costs.

To address these problems, in February 2015, Gov. Bruce Rauner created a
criminal-justice task force to identify areas of the criminal-justice
system that could be reformed that would result in a 25 percent reduction
in the prison population by 2025 – an ambitious task.

The best way to start would be to change how the state responds to
low-level, nonviolent drug and property felonies – a modest yet necessary
first step in making broader reforms.

In addition to being overcrowded and expensive for taxpayers to maintain,
the Illinois Department of Corrections system does not have a successful
rehabilitative track record, as nearly half of all prisoners released each
year – 48 percent – recidivate, or are convicted of a new crime, within
three years of release.

There’s little evidence that requiring low-level offenders to serve lengthy
prison terms produces positive results for public safety. Across the
country, many states have reduced their prison populations and violent
crime rates simultaneously. Several of these states saw reductions in their
prison populations and violent crime rates as a direct result of
comprehensive sentencing reforms.

With Rauner’s goal in mind, this report recommends making several changes
to the way Class 4 felony offenders are sentenced:

Decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of controlled substances
for personal use.
If decriminalization isn’t adopted, Illinois should at least create a
threshold necessary to trigger felony drug possession, effectively making
possession of certain controlled substances below that threshold a Class A
misdemeanor offense. Several states across the country have done this, and
seen positive results in terms of public safety and taxpayer savings.
Indeed, South Carolina has seen its prison population decrease by nearly 12
percent and its violent crime rate decrease by over 25 percent in just four
years after reforms were enacted. Since the reforms were enacted, the state
has also saved over $18 million.

Illinois should increase the threshold necessary to trigger a Class 4
felony retail theft offense from the current $300, and the threshold
necessary to trigger a Class 3 felony theft offense from the current $500.
Many other states’ thresholds are twice or four times as high as Illinois’.
Wisconsin has a $2,500 felony theft threshold, and the rate of theft in the
state is similar to Illinois’, which shows this reform would not
necessarily lead to an increase in theft in the state, but instead allow
individuals who commit low-level offenses to be punished more
proportionately.

This brief shows that reforming the state’s lowest-level nonviolent drug
and property felonies is a modest yet necessary first step in making
broader reform – and in meeting the governor’s 25 percent reduction goal –
an eventual reality.

[...]

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Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1
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