Poor Implementation of New Illinois Law Leaves Many Locked Up

 Posted on August 08, 2024 in Criminal Law

A new law in Illinois (Public Act 103-0330) went into effect on January 1, 2024, altering the Illinois Unified Code of Corrections. Under this law, the Department of Corrections must recalculate prisoner sentencing credits awarded prior to July 1, 2021 (Certain violent crimes are excluded under the Act). The credits for completion of eligible educational programs, work-release programs, substance abuse programs, and correctional industry assignments could potentially knock months or years off a sentence.

A criminal defense attorney from Appelman Law LLC can help those entitled to a recalculation of sentencing credits who have yet to receive those credits. It is necessary to have a knowledgeable Naperville, IL criminal defense lawyer who can aggressively pursue your rights and ensure you receive the sentencing credits you are entitled to. Unfortunately, you may not receive your credit until a legal professional gets involved.   

How Many People Are Still Waiting on Their Sentencing Credits?

It is estimated that at least 1,000 people who remain incarcerated are currently eligible to be released once their sentences are properly recalculated under the new law. Poor recordkeeping and a lack of transparency in how prison staff calculate credits have made the issue more complex. The Illinois Corrections Department digitized its system in 2010. Some people have been incarcerated since the 1990s, meaning up to two decades of their information may not be properly counting toward their early release.

What Does the New Law Allow?

The new law has several parts, including:

• Allowing inmates who worked in a correctional industry job to earn a day off their sentence for each day prior to 2021 that they worked.   
• Providing one day off a person’s sentence for every day prior to 2021 they participated in a reentry planning program.
• Allowing people a day off their sentence for every day prior to 2021 that they participated in a substance abuse program.
• Providing one day off a person’s sentence for every day prior to 2021 they participated in an educational or life skills planning program.
• There is also a provision retroactively granting credit for participation in any type of self-improvement program, certain work assignments, and volunteer work that had not properly been applied. This credit is half a day for each participation.  

Before the new law took effect, incarcerated people in the state had been allowed to earn half a day off for those activities. Correction department officials are required to recalculate credits already awarded to provide for the full-day credit. Yet, as of March 21, 2024, while 1,750 individuals had received the appropriate credits to trigger release, only 409 had been released.

For others, poor recordkeeping is preventing them from becoming eligible for release. One individual received a 55-year sentence in 1993. The new law gave him 1,011 days off his sentence or almost three years. Since the records used to calculate how much credit the man had earned only go back to 2010, the newly calculated release date does not take into account 17 years of work and educational history.  

While prisoners can submit a written request to their counselor or file a grievance to attempt to get all years inside counted, the grievance process is a three-step process that can take months—or longer. The Illinois Prison Project identified 10 people who should have been eligible for immediate release when the law went into effect, yet only five of those have gone home.

A major contributing factor seems to be where in the state the person was incarcerated when the new law took effect and how good the facility’s recordkeeping was and is. While those with lawyers are getting better results, they may still hit one stumbling block after another—even though prisoners who spent years working, learning skills, and furthering their education are among the least likely to re-offend.   

Contact a DuPage County, IL Criminal Defense Attorney

If you are eligible for early release under Public Act 103-0330 yet are still in prison, it could be beneficial to speak to a Naperville, IL criminal defense attorney from Appelman Law LLC, who can look into the matter and potentially speed up the process. If you are currently facing any criminal offense charges, the sooner you have an experienced criminal defense attorney as a strong advocate to be with you throughout the process, the more likely you are to have the best possible outcome. Contact Appelman Law LLC at 630-717-7801 to schedule your free consultation.