Is Illinois ready for criminal justice reform?
Faced with an Illinois prison population that has grown over 700 percent since the mid-1970s, the General Assembly's new Joint Criminal Justice Reform Committee, thankfully, recognizes the need to reduce incarceration of non-violent offenders and those who struggle with mental illness and addiction.
The legislative panel, created in May and chaired by state Rep. Michael J. Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat and state Sen. Michael Noland an Elgin Democrat, held its third public hearing on Oct. 14 and heard that it is long past time to shrink the scale and reform the scope of Illinois' oversized criminal justice system.
But how?
We need to divert individuals to better opportunities and better decisions. "No Entry" policies and programs at the front end of the justice system have untapped potential to help reduce recidivism and to save taxpayer costs.
What are these policies?
We must address the behavioral health issues - mental illness and addiction - that often contribute to criminal acts. With good screening and assessment up front, we can identify people who are eligible for diversion and we can direct them to recovery and restored citizenship instead of incarcerating them unnecessarily.
In fact, Medicaid expansion gives us the opportunity to increase access to substance abuse treatment and mental health care services. More than ever before, there is real opportunity to enact tangible criminal justice reforms. We can begin to make significant reforms that allow people to get treatment for behavioral health issues as soon as or even before they come in contact with the criminal justice system.
These programs are not novel in Illinois.
The Cook County State's Attorney's Drug School Program, for example, which provides education on the consequences of drug use, routinely graduates 90 percent of its participants. The State's Attorney's Office reports that these program graduates are about four times less likely to have a new drug arrest in the first year after the program than their peers who fail to complete the program. The program reduces costs to Cook County by more than $1.5 million a year.
Likewise, the TASC alternative-to-incarceration program, which provides linkage to community-based drug treatment and case management as an alternative to prison, diverted more than 2,000 people in FY14, saving the state over $36 million in prevented incarceration costs.
However, these types of successful programs have never been implemented at a scale to which they can be most effective. An informal survey by TASC conducted earlier this year among selected Illinois counties found limited implementation of many of these programs.
Rates of substance use and mental health conditions among people who are arrested and incarcerated are far higher than rates among the broader public - estimates indicate they are up to eight times greater. Over the past several decades, public policies across the U.S. have overwhelmingly imposed punitive measures, especially for drug-related offenses.
Diversion and alternative-to-incarceration programs offer a credible way to focus limited public resources where they will have a lasting and valuable impact. They offer opportunities for people to become healthy and responsible, while still holding them accountable for their actions.
As Rep. Zalewski and Sen. Noland draft their criminal sentencing reform legislation, they must embed both the No Entry principle that effective, full-scale diversion programs are necessary and the Reentry principle that for those returning to their communities after leaving prison, a pathway exists to provide recovery and restored citizenship rather than a return trip to prison.
Illinois is ready for criminal justice reform if its leaders are.
Pamela F. Rodriguez is president and CEO of Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, a Chicago-based agency working with people whose substance abuse or mental health problems put them at risk for chronic involvement with the justice system.