CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM LEGISLATION PASSES IN SPRINGFIELD

The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus introduced, and passed, a comprehensive legislative package meant to eliminate systemic racism in the state of Illinois. Photo courtesy of Taeveon Johnson
The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus introduced, and passed, a comprehensive legislative package meant to eliminate systemic racism in the state of Illinois. Photo courtesy of Taeveon Johnson

 Criminal justice reform legislation passes in Springfield

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus passed legislation meant to eliminate systemic racism. The legislative package included a bill to address disparities in education and workforce development, eliminate healthcare disparities, as well as criminal justice reform, violence reduction and police accountability.
     House Bill 3653 was sponsored by Illinois State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. Included in the legislation, is an end to cash bail for nonviolent offenders. It also requires body cams for law enforcement officers across the state of Illinois and expands use of force guidelines.
    Sims said while no bill would cure everything, it goes a long way towards dismantling the mass incarceration problem that plagues the Black community and which created this carceral state, which looks more towards locking people up than identifying the issues they are dealing with - such as poverty, substance abuse or mental health.
    “We’ve focused more on locking people up as opposed to addressing their problems. That’s what this bill does, it looks at all of these issues in a comprehensive way to address the underlying challenges people face,” he said.
    Sims added, it reimagines what public safety looks like, reimaging what the relationships between law enforcement and communities look like, so it is more collaborative and less combative.
    “The criminal justice system sits at the end of the other issues. Whether it’s investing in a high-quality education for our young people, whether it’s creating economic opportunities so people can feed themselves and their families, whether it’s addressing the health inequities, which exist … The criminal justice sits at end of failures of all those others,” he said.
    Sims said the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus didn’t want to  pass one bill, they wanted to point out to their colleagues that these problems are holistic and need to be attacked and remedied in a holistic fashion. Sims said the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus has been working on these issues for years.
    “Now, we have the opportunity to show our colleagues and they have the opportunity to see, in real time, the realities that we face every day. The reality is that there are two criminal justice systems here in America, one for Black and marginalized people, and one for everybody else,” he said.         “There should be one system of justice based on who you are as a person, not what you look like or the color of your skin.”
Sims said members of the Caucus were directed by what their constituents said was needed, adding, he had emails and calls about criminal justice reform and police accountability measures.
    “This is on the minds of people all across our communities,” he said. “These issues are deep seeded in our community. And, our constituents are demanding that we take action and the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus did just that.”
Illinois State Senator Robert Peters is the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus chair. He said racist systems need to be broken and remade.
    “It is impossible to win real safety and justice in our communities and achieve true equality until the systems that enable systemic racism are completely dismantled, such as cash bail - which once stood at the intersection of racism, classism, and sexism and essentially made it a crime to be poor,” stated Peters in a release. “There is still a lot more work to do, but the comprehensive reform we passed this week, which was [the] result of years of work, is a historic, transformational start. It can be used as a foundation on which we can build a future where everyone in this state can be made whole.”

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