McHenry First Offender program to give second chances
For a young adult whose lapse in judgment leads to forging a check or breaking into a car, the felony conviction that can follow can be a life sentence that slams the door shut on college, careers and other opportunities.
Starting this week in McHenry County, that doesn't necessarily have to be case.
State's Attorney Louis Bianchi announced Monday his office will launch its First Offender Program beginning Wednesday, allowing nonviolent first-time felons a chance to avoid conviction.
"It's really an opportunity to correct behavior, move on in life and not have that stigma of a felony conviction," Bianchi said.
The program, modeled closely after Kane County's Second Chance, will allow defendants facing a first felony charge to apply for admission before a 10-member citizen volunteer panel. Anyone accused of a violent, drug or sex offense, anyone on probation or supervision at the time of the charge or anyone with a serious criminal history will be barred from applying.
The 10-member panel will meet with the person privately - no defense or prosecution lawyers allowed - and make his or her case for admission to the program. The panel then will make a recommendation as whether the person would be admitted, and under what terms they must abide, to the state's attorney's office.
Along with the panel's recommendation, the prosecutors's office will seek input from victims and police departments involved in each case before making a determination, said Philip Hiscock, criminal division chief for the state's attorney's office.
If admitted, the defendant will have one year to meet a set of requirements that can include making restitution to victims, undergoing counseling, performing community service and obtaining a general-equivalency degree. Kane County's program, he said, has collected about $1.8 million in restitution since its program began about 14 years ago and participants performed 31,000 hours of community service last year alone.
"It's been wildly successful here," said Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said, saying the program has a low recidivism rate and has contributed to speeding up criminal court proceedings.
Failure to meet the requirements would put the defendant back in felony court, only now having made an admission to the charges, as required for entry to the program.
"It's a big carrot and stick approach," Hiscock said.
Bianchi expects the program to be budget neutral with its fees for application and entry - $25 and $750, respectively - covering its costs, which include a coordinator in his office to oversee operations and monitor participants.
Besides giving first-time felons a second chance, Bianchi believes, the program will lessen the heavy caseload in the county's felony courtrooms. As it stands, the county's two felony court judges take on about 1,400 news cases each year. Currently, as many as 120 defendants with pending cases could qualify for the program, and about 160 a year thereafter.
"One of the silent benefits is that it will clear the backlog of cases in our courtrooms," Bianchi said. "We're certainly taxing our felony judges."
McHenry County Public Defender Mark Cook said he supports the program, though does have concerns over how some of his low-income clients could afford to participate.
Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Demetri Tsilimigras said the program will consider fee waivers on a case-by-case basis, but expects most participants will be willing to pay.