Pritzker Press Release on 700-Page Bill Signed Today

From Governor JB Pritzker:

Gov. Pritzker Signs Legislation Transforming Illinois’ Criminal Justice System

HB 3653 Expands Safety, Fairness and Justice – Builds on Years of Work by Community Advocates, Lawmakers, and Members of Law Enforcement; Illinois To Lead the Nation in Reforming Pretrial Detention

CHICAGO – Building on efforts to create a more equitable and safe criminal justice system, Governor JB Pritzker signed landmark legislation that transforms Illinois’ criminal justice system.

JB Pritzker signing the bill.

This landmark legislation ends a pretrial detention system that benefits the wealthy, expands training and wellness programs for law enforcement, modernizes sentencing laws, and prioritizes treatment and rehabilitation for low-level drug crimes.

“This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state and our nation and brings us closer to true safety, true fairness and true justice,” said Governor JB Pritzker. 

Governor Pritzker holding up bill after signing.

“In this terrible year, in the middle of a brutal viral pandemic that hurt Black people and Brown people disproportionately, lawmakers fought to address the pandemic of systemic racism in the wake of national protests. This bill was also infused with solutions from individuals most directly impacted: survivors of domestic violence, survivors of crime, and those who have been detained pre-trial only because they are poor.

“Today we advance our values in the law – progress secured despite the pandemic, because of the passion and push of the Legislative Black Caucus, activists, advocates, and residents intent on leaving a better Illinois for all our children.”

“Black History is about monumental moments and movements that serve as catalysts for change. Today, with the signing of HB 3653, it is both,” said Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton. 

Democratic Party graphic on the bill.

“I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for Governor Pritzker and members of the Illinois Black Caucus. They used their seats of power to effectuate change that will alter the trajectory of lives, families, and entire communities for generations to come.”

House Bill 3653 expands safety, fairness, and justice by transforming the state’s criminal justice system and enacting statewide police reforms through the following:

• Moves Illinois from a system of pretrial detention that prioritizes wealth, to one that prioritizes public safety.
• Diverts low-level drug crimes into substance use programs and treatments.
• Modernizes sentencing laws and streamlines the victims’ compensation system.
• Requires more investments in officer training, mental health, and officer wellness.
• Expands training opportunities for officers, requires health and wellness services for officers, and protects officers from unjust lawsuits based on their reasonable actions.
• Sets statewide standards on use of force, crowd control responses, de-escalation, and arrest techniques.
• Requires the use of body-worn cameras by police departments statewide.
• Professionalizes policing through the creation of a more robust certification system and lays out clear standards and processes for decertification.
• Expands accountability across police departments by requiring the permanent retention of police misconduct records and removes the sworn affidavit requirement when filing police misconduct complaints.
• Requires police departments to develop plans to protect vulnerable people present during search warrant raids.
• Eliminates license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees due to red light camera and traffic offenses.
• Ends prison gerrymandering.
• Expands services for crime victims.

“These reforms should merely be the first steps we take to transform criminal justice in Illinois,” said State Senator Elgie Sims. 

“We must reimagine accountability. We must reimagine transparency. We must reimagine incarceration. These reforms are a beginning. This historic moment is the result of a monumental effort on the part of countless people, from those who testified during the 30 hours of public hearings on these issues, to those who have pushed for some of these reforms for years, and especially to the Illinoisans who signaled their support. I thank them for lifting up their voices and never giving up, and I thank Gov. Pritzker for making these measures the law of the land. The journey continues.”

“HB 3653 is a bold and transformative initiative that comprehensively brings fairness and equity to our criminal justice system,” said State Representative Justin Slaughter. “By effectively addressing police reform, mass incarceration, and violence reduction, HB 3653 will enhance public safety for all communities. The time is now to go from protest to progress.”

Republican Senators offer this image.

“As a former community organizer, I fought side by side with the Coalition to End Money Bond,” said State Senator Robert Peters. “Today, to see that the fight paid off and that money bond will soon be abolished at the state level inspires me to continue fighting for our communities.  Together we must continue to work toward making everyone in this state whole.”

“The historical inequities of our criminal justice system do not just disappear with the passage of time; that takes effort and courage,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. 

Illinois Sheriffs’ Association take on the bill.

“Today I thank the Governor and our legislators for their effort and courage, doing what it takes us to lead us into a brighter future. For a decade now we’ve worked to reduce our reliance on the antiquated system of cash bail in Cook County; and our efforts have shown that we have been able to do so safely. This work, coupled with the decades of advocacy and expertise from throughout the state and from the communities most affected by crime, have informed this brave and just piece of legislation.”

“The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence commends Governor Pritzker on signing into law HB 3653,” said Amanda Pyron, Executive Director of The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence. “This bill provides for detention hearings for those accused of domestic and sexual violence, while ensuring those accused of non-violent crimes are not punished for being poor. Survivors will have notice of hearings and the opportunity to obtain orders of protection in the pre-trial phase. The Network applauds Governor Pritzker and the Legislative Black Caucus for protecting survivors and advancing racial equity through criminal justice reform. Justice for survivors cannot be achieved without racial and economic justice.”

HB 3653 was the result of years of work by community advocates, lawmakers, and members of law enforcement. The legislation was an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and the culmination of nine public hearings, 30 hours of testimony, and countless meetings with law enforcement, community members, and advocates.

HB 3653 is effective July 1, 2021, except for certain provisions that are effective either January 1, 2022 (use of force changes), January 1, 2023 (Pretrial Fairness Act), and January 1, 2025 (prison gerrymandering).


Comments

Pritzker Press Release on 700-Page Bill Signed Today — 20 Comments

  1. Why is it 700 pages?

    “The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before they are promulg[at]ed, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.” -James Madison: Founding Father of the Untied States, 4th President of the United States, contributor to the Federalist Papers, member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

  2. It’s a sad day for Illinois. This is little more than a mandate by the Black Caucus and Liberal Progressive Democrats to turn the entire state into a copy of Cook County.

    If it’s so damn fine a plan, like gun control, why don’t the carve out a law like this applicable to ONLY Cook county and give it a Sunset Date of December 31, 2025.

    $5 will get you $1,000 that Cook County would seek to reverse the bill within two years.

    IT.WILL.NOT.WORK!

    Going back to gun control.

    Cook County and Chicago have some of the toughest, most restrictive gun laws in the country.

    How’s that working for them?

  3. Criminals, BLM, illegals all win.

    The rest of us lose.

    No reason to stay in this rotten state.

  4. More White crime victims are the goal.

    Let the car jacking rate rise exponentially.

    Illinoisans are continually less safe under the Rauner (Sanctuary state)/Pritzker Axis.

    That’s why productive White people are voting w/ their feet and fleeing this negroid crime he’ll.

  5. The fat ass could have just let it take effect by not signing it.

    But his elite sick instincts and desire for communist applause made him sign the death warrant for tens of thousands of Illinois families.

    Cops will now sit on their hands and minority thugs and gangs will become even more aggressive.

    Great work Fatty!

    Systemic racism, Fatty?

    What about your anti white racism?

  6. On Chicago’s Very Own TV , last night, a video showed a very huge fat guy with puffy cheeks signing the Bill and smirking. He said with this Bill, Illinoiz leads the country in dismantling systemic racism.

    Republican House Minority Leader Jim Durkin said:

    “Governor’s support of House Bill 3653 is an insult to our first responders, law enforcement and the law abiding citizens of Illinois who want to live free of violence and destruction from the criminal element.
    It’s clear that Governor Pritzker does not understand this bill and what it means to our criminal justice system. Illinois and its citizens will not be safer because of this bill.”

  7. You are one weird FREAK Cindy calling people Satanic worshipers.

    What’s wrong with you?

    WEAR YOUR MASK FREAK!!!!

  8. Article above states:

    “The legislation was an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus”

    Just wondering, what was the input to this Bill by the Illinois Legislative Yellow Caucus or by the Illinois Legislative White Caucus?

  9. Understand that for others, and specifically people of color, their experience with law enforcement may have been far different from your own.

    It is easier for our community to “back the blue” when the community knows that blue won’t kill them for non-violent crimes, such that there is no de facto death penalty for any and all infractions.

    Creating specific and strict standards for use of force is absolutely necessary to prevent the abuse of such power and death or injury to community members.

    Prohibiting unreasonable terms of bond/bail is absolutely necessary to prevent income-based detention.

    Requiring accountability for uses of force and detention is absolutely necessary to prevent corruption and abuse of authority.

    Absent such legislation, we would need to have exceptional leaders in law enforcement who implement their own checks and balances (like Sheriff Hain in Kane County, who is an example of such an exceptional leader).

    We do not have that kind of law enforcement leadership here in McHenry County and many other Illinois counties.

    These reforms are necessary to compel those individuals and agencies to re-focus on “serving and protecting” the community, instead of trying to preserve and protect their unchecked authority.

    There is a way for law enforcement to do its job effectively, while doing no harm. Our McHenry County leadership needs to embrace that instead of resist it.

  10. WileyQuixote on

    Lets test out the new law with your property or in your house–you know, the part where a trespasser can’t be removed by the Police nor arrested.

    PADS shelters can send folks over your house and see what you are gonna do about it–memba now, Po-Po cant help remove them–they can only issue a ticket to appear at some future court date and you stuck with the “removal” problem–“whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”

    Prim does a fine job in this County

    whats the beef?

  11. Wiley is full of sh^t with words like this

    income-based detention

  12. Agree Wiley is full of it. And I see Cindy is back spouting idiocy.

  13. Wiley quit sucking on turds!

    People like you are dross.

  14. Maybe if negroes weren’t do crime prone, we could live in peace.

    The jails are crowded with them way out of proportion to their percentage in the population.

  15. I see a morbidly obese “white” (Jewish) guy with no mask on while ALL of the black people are forced to wear masks, even though they’re all much skinnier and healthier than he is.

    What did he mean by this?

  16. Joe Blow Cindy always has something stupid to say but I bet she has her mask on when she goes to the store.

    HAHAHAHA

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