Lawmakers approve changes to criminal sentencing for minors

Illinois lawmakers have approved a measure that reforms criminal sentencing for minors, particularly victims of child sex trafficking.

House Bill 3414 would add to the factors that judges must consider in the process of sentencing children found guilty of a crime. The bill would require a judge to consider a child's involvement in the child welfare system, whether they have a history of domestic abuse or sexual exploitation and the results of any mental health evaluations the child has gone through. This is in addition to existing factors that judges already consider, such as age, maturity and potential for rehabilitation.

The bill also would create method for judges to depart from sentencing guidelines, including mandatory minimums, or to transfer a minor offender to juvenile court for sentencing.

This would be allowed only if the child commited a crime against a person who had, in the previous three years, been convicted of one of several specific crimes, including aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a child or engaging a child in prostitution.

The bill also would add to the factors judges must consider when a prosecutor asks to transfer a case to adult court. These new factors include whether the child has any involvement in the child welfare system, whether the child was subjected to "outside pressure" and the child's degree of participation in the crime.

The measure passed 33-20 in the Senate Wednesday after passing the House on a 67-40 vote on March 22. It can become law with a signature from the governor.

Proponents of the bill say it is part of a nationwide movement to include protections in law for victims of child sex trafficking. These laws are sometimes called "Sara's Law" after Sara Kruzan, a survivor of child sex trafficking who killed her trafficker in 1995. After being sentenced to life in prison, Kruzan's sentence was later commuted, allowing her to be paroled in 2013. In 2022, Kruzan was granted a pardon by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"We're giving the courts extra opportunities to check and see: Was this victim brought into this situation because of some sort of trauma?" the bill's sponsor, Sen. Mike Simmons, a Chicago Democrat, said in an interview.

The bill was supported by a coalition of state and national advocacy groups including the Juvenile Justice Initiative, the Women's Justice Institute, Rights4Girls, the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Assault took a leading role in pushing for the bill.

"There's an understanding that youth require more support and more compassion than our system gives them," Madeleine Behr, CAASE's policy director, said in an interview.

Behr also said the bill is part of an ongoing movement toward racial justice in the criminal legal system.

"This is going to be really important for Black and brown girls in particular," Behr said.

A U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report from 2011 found that over a two-year period, victims of sex trafficking were disproportionately Black and disproportionately Hispanic.

In the past few years Illinois has passed several high-profile criminal justice reform laws, including the broad-ranging SAFE-T Act that is currently under review by the Illinois Supreme Court. The high court heard oral arguments in March around several constitutional questions related to the bill.

Republicans in the Senate raised concerns with the bill, mostly around the fact that judges will have to consider additional factors even when the perpetrator has not been the victim of abuse or trafficking.

"The crimes we are talking about, where a person is being transferred to adult court, these are not retail theft," said Sen. Steve McClure, a Springfield Republican. "These are not minor crimes. These are the worst of the worst."

McClure added that some of the provisions in the bill already have similar considerations in law, such as if there was involvement in the Department of Children and Family Services or if the parent had been found to be neglectful or abusive.

"In situations where there should be leniency, the tools are already in our statute to provide for leniency," he said.

Sen. Jason Plummer, an Edwardsville Republican, said the bill is a "get-out-of-jail-free card" for young offenders.

Senate Minority Leader John Curran, a Downers Grove Republican, said the bill would make it more difficult for prosecutors to crack down on crimes like carjacking in the city and suburbs, something he called "an epidemic of violence."

"This bill is going to make it more difficult in prosecuting and enforcing those crimes," Curran said.

Curran also criticized the expanded list of factors judges would have to consider in sentencing.

"This bill now has a factor that a judge must consider: Was the accused offender subject to peer pressure? Not sure how that's relevant," he said.

Simmons defended the bill after it passed by saying it would not require judges to do anything other than take more information into consideration.

"This legislation gives judges the space to look at these other categories," Simmons said. "But the legislation does not put a thumb on the scales of justice."