Budget Standoff Threatens Flagship Court Reform
The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin published an editorial by Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice regarding the impact of the state fiscal crisis on the state’s flagship prison diversion program, Adult Redeploy Illinois. The full text is reprinted below and a .pdf is available here:
In this week’s state of the state address, Governor Rauner rightly characterizes our state’s investment in alternatives to prison as both an economic and humanitarian necessity. We applaud the Governor’s Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform’s aims, but we also believe that the Governor’s Office is undercutting the goals of its own Commission by failing to fund its flagship executive branch criminal justice reform program, Adult Redeploy Illinois. On the one hand, the Governor lauds this sound and bipartisan public policy; on the other, he shifts implementation costs onto cash-strapped counties and their beleaguered employees. This is a hazardous strategy, and we suggest that he stay the course with Adult Redeploy Illinois—a cost effective approach that saves lives and money.
Adult Redeploy Illinois (ARI) was formed by the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009. It is administered by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, an executive branch agency, and is a nationally recognized program that eliminates prison overcrowding by going to its source—the county criminal courts that sentence Illinois prisoners.
ARI funds local criminal justice agencies willing to take an honest look at the drivers of imprisonment and then implement, evaluate, and update strategies to send fewer nonviolent offenders to prison. Instead of spending $22,000, the average cost of prison per person in Illinois, counties have spent an average of $4,400 per defendant for a total savings of over $46 million since ARI’s inception. This approach has stimulated collaboration among criminal justice stakeholders while diverting tax dollars away from prisons and into more productive uses in the prisoners’ home communities. Last year ARI received the National Criminal Justice Association’s Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Award in recognition of its work in community corrections.
Since 2013, we have helped plan, implement, and manage one of Cook County’s two ARI programs, the Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court. The ACT Court works with people who have spent most of their adult lives under the supervision of Illinois’ correctional system. The average ACT Court defendant is 47 years old and had been arrested 39 times, largely because of addiction to heroin, cocaine, or alcohol. All had been to prison at least once, and none were rehabilitated by it. Video testimony from ACT Court Ambassadors attests to the program’s profound impact: http://www.chicagoappleseed.org/act-ambassador-video/
The Governor has extolled the virtues of ARI repeatedly, beginning with his first state of the state address, when he congratulated lawmakers for supporting it and said, “We will continue to fund Adult Redeploy Illinois.” And again, in this week’s state of the state address, the Governor called for “evidence-based programs that target underlying criminal behavior” as a means to reduce the prison population by 25%: the precise mission of Adult Redeploy Illinois.
Local officials agree with these goals – so much so that 39 Illinois counties have expended millions of dollars in costs for these worthwhile programs while awaiting a state budget.
But now, faced with the looming prospect of receiving no state reimbursement—let alone future funding—Cook County agencies are struggling to maintain ARI programs. Dropping these programs would cause great and lasting harm, devastating the individuals receiving services through them, and eroding morale among the devoted and hard-working staff—the same staff needed to carry out the Governor’s future plans.
Before applauding future initiatives, we need to focus on retaining and supporting current programs with proven success. We call upon the Governor’s Commission to consider new ideas and current policies simultaneously, and to devise an ongoing criminal justice reform plan that corrects current shortcomings and builds a better future. Further, we ask this paper and other media to hold the Governor accountable to his commitments.
Kathryn Welter, Senior Policy Analyst and Special Projects Manager
Malcolm Rich, Executive Director
Ali Abid, Staff Attorney and Policy Analyst