The Earned Reentry Bill
Originally introduced in 2021, the Earned Reentry Bill provides a mechanism for regular review of people who have served at least 20 years in prison, thus restoring an opportunity for people with long sentences to return to productive lives when they are ready.
People who meet certain criteria could be granted parole by the Prisoner Review Board, allowing them to return home to their families and jobs while remaining under community supervision. They would be held to stipulated rules and complete regular check-ins with a parole officer until the end of their community supervision.
To be fair to all people who have been incarcerated for decades without review, eligibility would be expanded over three years.
In the first year after passage, people would become eligible if they have served at least 35 consecutive years in prison.
In the second year after passage, people would become eligible if they have served at least 25 consecutive years in prison.
In the third year after passage, and each year thereafter, people would become eligible if they have served at least 20 consecutive years in prison.
Further, the bill ensures that hearings for earned reentry shall be administered by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board and establishes procedures for the hearings.
Track Updates And Read The Bill:
No Parole In Illinois: Since 1978
Illinois was the 4th of 17 states that abolished discretionary parole (1978). When the United States Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, some people sought to replace the death penalty with life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences. In 1976, the death penalty was reinstituted but the push for LWOP sentences continued. With limited exceptions, nobody sentenced in Illinois since 1978 is parole-eligible.
Some of the arguments made to abolish parole were well-intentioned. For example, parole board decisions were identified as racist for releasing white people earlier than people of color incarcerated for the same offense. Many hoped that replacing parole with determinate (fixed-length) sentencing, along with day-for-day good time credits for everyone, would be more fair.
That’s not how it turned out. The systemic racism inherent in our criminal legal system still resulted in discriminatory outcomes. Prosecutors and judges regularly saddled people of color with longer sentences. Black people comprise less than 15% of Illinois’ population, but make up 68% of the people sentenced to die in prison. Thousands of people – a disproportionate number of whom are people of color – have been ordered to spend the remainder of their lives in prison, regardless of their rehabilitation, with no chance at a review process.
Has any state restored parole?
Yes! Mississippi abolished parole in 1995 and, over the next decade, the incarcerated population swelled, prisons became even more overcrowded, and budgetary needs to pay for so many incarcerated people strained the state budget. By 2008, Mississippi had restored parole and still has it today.
Illinois joins others in trying to restore parole. Maine, the first state to abolish parole in 1976, had a bill before the Legislature in 2023 that would restore parole. Parole restoration bills have been discussed in Florida and Virginia.
Is anyone in Illinois eligible for parole?
There are dozens of people in Illinois who are parole-eligible because they were sentenced for crimes that occurred before 1978. These people are called “C-Numbers” as their prison identification numbers begin with a “C.”
In 2023, Illinois became the 26th state to abolish life-without-parole sentences for children (Public Act 102-1128). Building on a 2019 juvenile parole law, parole eligibility has been expanded for people who were under 21 years old at the time of the alleged crime.
Illinois has no discretionary parole for well over 90% of its tens of thousands of incarcerated individuals. Since 1978, tough-on-crime sentencing enhancements have piled up on one another, so-called “Truth-in-Sentencing” has eliminated regular day-for-day good time, and the average time people are serving for many crimes has doubled or tripled.
If nothing is changed, over 5,000 people will be needlessly required to grow old and die in prison, with no review of whether their continued incarceration serves any purpose.
Parole in the United States
Illinois is an outlier when it comes to parole, which is a widely used, common sense tool in our country. The vast majority of states, 34 total, have parole available to those who commit crimes today, while 16 states, including Illinois, only have parole for people who committed their crimes prior to the year it was abolished. Over 800,000 people were under parole supervision at the end of 2020, according to the US Department of Justice.