Also known as SB1733, would give all people who are incarcerated in Illinois prisons the right to vote in local and federal elections. It would also require Illinois prisons to provide civic education courses to people serving time in prison.
Chicago Votes is the lead organization behind the proposed RACE Act and has advocated for its passage since 2020.
“Illinois would be the first state in the United States to restore voting rights to people in prison,” Chicago Votes co-executive director Stevie Valles said. “In some states, those rights were never taken away, but this is the only state where those rights were taken away, and now we’re [trying to restore] them.”
What’s the status? The bill was introduced to the Senate by its sponsor, Sen. Lakesia Collins (D-5th) on April 11, but it hasn’t had a committee hearing. Valles said they were told Illinois Senate President Don Harmon won’t move on the bill unless Attorney General Kwame Raoul provides an opinion on it.
“It’s ridiculous that we even have to go through this Attorney General process, when we have so many legal opinions stating that this is constitutional,” Valles said. “It’s clear that Democrats, certain Democrats, just don’t want to vote on the bill because they feel like it’s a ‘hard vote.’”
The TRiiBE reached out to Harmon through email to ask about the delay. At first, a spokesperson for Harmon said the bill was introduced in the 103rd General Assembly, so previous legislation was closed. In the current 104th General Assembly, there isn’t a SB3482.
Valles added that advocates who support the bill feel waiting on an opinion from the Attorney General is a stall tactic. They’ve gotten legal opinions from groups like the Chicago Committee for Civil Rights. He said the bill could also be moved or called for a vote at some point this week.
“We have support in the House and the Senate. We feel confident that if we get the bill called for a vote, we’ll have enough votes to get it out.”
More information about the RACE Act can be found here.
The Clean Slate Illinois Coalition (CSIC), which is leading the effort, aims to streamline expungement and record sealing statewide.
For many impacted by the criminal justice system, the stigma of a conviction doesn’t end once their sentence is complete. A criminal record creates barriers to housing, jobs, and more.
In Illinois, there are more than 1,189 laws that punish people with criminal records indefinitely, most of which create barriers to employment, according to the 2020 report “Never Fully Free: The Scale and Impact of Permanent Punishments on People with Criminal Records in Illinois.”
While the proposed legislation establishes an automatic process for sealing certain records, it excludes serious criminal offenses ineligible for sealing or expungement under current state law.
What’s the status? On Wednesday, Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-92), the lead House sponsor of the Clean Slate Act, introduced the legislation through an amendment to SB1784. The bill is expected to be voted on in the House today, according to Antonio Lightfoot, the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments (ENDPP)’s deputy director.
ENDPP is an organization and campaign hub for people directly impacted by the criminal legal system. ENDPP is part of the coalition advocating for the Clean Slate Act. Representatives from the coalition have been present in both chambers since the start of the current session in January.
Lightfoot added that he’s feeling good about the bill’s current status but is encouraging Illinois residents to call their representatives to pass it this week.
“Just because things are looking good doesn’t mean it’s time to let up,” he said. “So call your legislator, call your Senator, State Rep, and tell them to vote ‘yes’ on Clean Slate. Tell them that we need Clean Slate. It’s a bill for employment and for people who come home from prison, parole or probation.”
More information about the Clean Slate Act can be found here.
This legislation proposes allocating $103 million for the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to provide grants to community-based organizations that support violence intervention, formerly incarcerated people and those at risk of being impacted by gun violence with housing and other supportive services.
“When we look at the people who experience homelessness, about 60% of the unsheltered men, and 40% of unsheltered women are people who have been previously incarcerated,” according to Ahmadou Dramé, director of the Illinois Justice Project.
“So these are folks who just have a record, they have [already] been incarcerated. When we also look at unemployment rates in our state, of people who are exiting the state prison system, 45% of the people who exit the Illinois Department of Corrections will experience unemployment for about three years,” he continued.
What’s the status? Home for Good has been introduced in both chambers, but Dramé said the pathway toward implementation is to include it in the 2026 state budget.
“The challenge we run into in Springfield is that everybody is concerned about a lack of resources and the argument we’ve been trying to make to them is we shouldn’t think about this investment the same way you think about other investments that may not have a high return,” Dramé said.
For every dollar that the state invests in Home for Good, there’s a $6 return to taxpayers, he added. That means “we’d spend less money on incarcerating and arresting people, because we’d address the root cause of incarceration and recidivism by virtue of addressing people’s housing needs and then giving them the support and services that they need,” Dramé said.
More information about Home for Good can be found here.
Also known as HB3363, this legislation would reform the state’s public defense system, which hasn’t been reformed since 1949. Illinois is one of five states that does not have statewide oversight of public defense.
If approved by both chambers, the bill would establish a statewide public defender’s office and an independent State Public Commission to appoint the State Public Defender. The bill aims to improve the current public defense system by providing oversight, expanding resources and establishing standards to ensure the rights of people accused of a crime and those who can’t afford an attorney.
“Everybody understands that when you’re accused of an offense, you want to have a good attorney with you to help protect your rights and ensure that everything you get from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are protected,” Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr. said.
The Cook County Public Defender’s Office is one of many legal organizations that support the FAIR Act.
“You can’t have that protection without somebody on your side, and you can’t have that protection without someone on your side [who] has the capacity, energy, and resources to ensure that your rights are protected,” Mitchell explained. “In the end, this is what this bill is about. This bill is about ensuring that every public defender from Cook County to Sangamon County, from Jo Daviess County to Winnebago County, has the things that they need to protect the person’s rights.”
What’s the status? The bill passed in the House 72-41 in April. Mitchell is hoping the bill is considered for a vote in the Senate before the legislative session ends this week.
“We desperately need this reform. So the fact that we have both the speaker of the House, the Senate president, and the Illinois Supreme Court’s support of this, at this point, we just need to get it up on the board,” Mitchell said. “I know there are a lot of things kind of going on in Springfield, obviously, with the budget. Lots of different things like transportation [and] health care. We’re just hoping that they have the time to get this called, and I think if it does get called, we’re going to have success.”
More information about the FAIR Act can be found here.
