For kids in Illinois, a single dumb mistake no longer will have the power to forever, and tragically, alter the course of their lives.
Supporters of a landmark piece of juvenile justice reform legislation say that, with his signature last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner cleared the roadblocks to a second chance for Illinoisans whose youthful mistakes have restricted their access to education, jobs and housing.
Reformers have worked for years to ensure teens in Illinois will get a second chance for doing what many teenagers do -- make mistakes, sometimes very big ones.
Among them is the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, which commissioned the report “Burdened for Life: The Myth of Juvenile Record Confidentiality and Expungement in Illinois How to Fix a Broken System that Fails Youth and Harms the State.”
It found that rarely are juvenile records being expunged in Illinois courts despite the fact the vast majority of youth arrested each year are because of nonviolent crimes. Too often those unsealed records have resulted in those otherwise law-abiding young people not going to college or trade school, getting a job or finding housing. That is not only costly for our youth but for our society.
People are also reading…
The report mobilized lawmakers to approve the Youth Opportunity and Fairness Act sponsored by Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, and Sen. Michael E. Hastings, D-Tinley Park, and pushed by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other juvenile advocates.
The new law’s provisions include:
-- Erasure of juvenile arrests that do not lead to charges if one year has passed since the arrest occurred and six months have passed without any subsequent arrest or charges.
-- Expungement when charges are dismissed or result in an acquittal or an order of supervision that is later successfully terminated.
-- Nonviolent offenses that result in a finding of guilty be automatically expunged after the court orders termination of the proceedings.
-- Confidentiality protections be extended to municipal ordinance violations.
-- Job seekers would not have to report juvenile court adjudications and employers would not be allowed to ask for expunged juvenile records.
The law won support even among tough-on-crime lawmakers because it was aimed not at violent and repeat offenders but at one-time youth offenders. It also protects public safety by ensuring young offenders will have a chance to become productive adult members of their communities.
“Loose confidentiality laws and arrest records that follow kids for life make it extremely difficult for youth to overcome their mistakes -- can cause families to become homeless, can stall or end a youth’s education and can make every road to a job a dead end,” said Julie L. Biehl, director of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, which conducted the expungement study. “This broken system has made our neighborhoods less safe, but this new, balanced law will eliminate some of the burdens for young people attempting to leave their past behind them and lead productive lives.”
We salute all who made it happen and hope other states are paying attention. The right to a second-chance shouldn’t depend on geography.