Commission Proposes 14 Recommendations for Illinois Prison Reform

A commission created last year by way of executive order by Gov. Bruce Rauner released its first set of recommendations that aim to reduce the prison population in the Illinois Department of Corrections by 25 percent over the next decade.

The Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform last week presented Rauner with 14 proposals in the first part of its final report. The Commission's proposals revolve around four main goals laid out in the governor's Feb. 11 executive order: ensuring the lawfulness of sentencing and programming, reducing the number of prison admissions, reducing the length of prison stays and reducing recidivism by increasing the chances of successful reintegration into society.

From the report:

Echoing national trends, Illinois' rate of incarceration, even when controlling for population growth, has increased more than 500 percent in the last forty years, with a disproportionate impact on the State's poor, mostly minority, citizens. Today, Illinois prisons are operating at roughly 150 percent of design capacity, and, at the beginning of 2015, housed 48,278 inmates, most of whom were sentenced for non-violent offenses. Nearly all of these prisoners will eventually return to their communities, and about half will be re-incarcerated within the following three years.

Rauner said some of the recommendations outlined in the report can be implemented by his administration without approval from state lawmakers. Reforms that would require the passage of legislation should garner bipartisan support, he added, though some may be controversial, especially in an election year.

Here are brief summaries of the 14 recommendations listed in the Commission's initial report.

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