Editorial: Rauner should sign juvenile records bill now

As Gov. Bruce Rauner waits for reluctant Democratic legislative leaders to send him an education funding bill, he has another bill already on his desk that needs signing.

House Bill 3817, passed with bipartisan support, would make it easier to expunge juvenile police records and also strengthens the confidentiality provisions for those records.

These revisions of law come on the heels of last year's bill that Rauner signed that allowed juveniles to immediately petition for expungement in certain cases rather than waiting until they were 18.

At that time, when he signed more than a dozen criminal justice bills focused on adults and juveniles, Rauner said, "People deserve redemption. People deserve an opportunity for a second chance."

That's exactly what House Bill 3817 does - gives juveniles who make a mistake as kids a chance to start over as adults.

"Stigmatizing ... young people makes no sense," Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said earlier this year when she spoke out in favor of the changes.

We agree with that assessment. And so did a report from a state-run commission released last year that is the basis of the changes now being sought.

The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission's report found that costly fees and strict eligibility rules are barriers for youth to have their records expunged, according to an Associated Press story on the report. The commission says an average of just three in 1,000 juvenile arrest records were expunged from 2004 to 2014.

And the effect of that: juveniles who get in trouble early in life are limited in their efforts at employment, education and housing as they get older. Also hindering their second chance at a good life is the sharing of these records - both lawfully and unlawfully.

The bill, co-sponsored by former state Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat, would tighten the confidentiality laws and set new penalties for violating that confidentiality. It would also expand automatic - and cost free - expungement of state and local records - under certain provisions for most cases that do not have an element of violence or threat of violence involved.

For example, records of arrest in which no charges end up being filed or cases that are dismissed, result in a finding of not delinquent or in an order of supervision successfully completed.

Even minor cases in which a person is found guilty would have automatic expungement.

These are good solutions to the problems highlighted in the task force's report and will help to improve the juvenile justice system.