'Offenders' to become 'justice-impacted individuals' under Illinois Dem lawmakers' new proposal

Illinois state lawmakers have advanced a bill that will amend the Criminal Reduction Act of 2009 in a number of ways. While HB4409 includes a number of measures aimed at improving the system, the change that has garnered the most attention is the proposed replacement of the term "offender" with "justice-impacted individual."

While the move has been celebrated by Democrats, Republicans have questioned why the state is spending resources on yet another linguistic modification at a time when crime is on the rise.
 

"Over and over again, we keep changing the name of how we are referring to those who have entered into criminal activity and each time we make that change, each agency has to make that change on every one of their documents," Republican state Sen. Terri Bryant said on Tuesday, per The Center Square. "Right now in the Department of Corrections, there's multiple changes that have been made and it’s costing thousands and thousands of dollars just to do a name change."

Her sentiments were shared by fellow GOP lawmaker state Sen. Steve McClure, who said the change was yet another example of a widespread "rush to take away all accountability for people who commit crimes."

"If a person is going to get on the right path, they have to know they did something wrong," he argued. "This apologizing for the criminal, the person who chooses to commit crimes to the detriment of our victims, the people who don’t choose to be victims of crimes, is absolutely incredible."

He went on to note that, "crime is up 38% year-to-date since 2019. Crime is up everywhere. We have seen an incredible increase of drugs that have been snuck into prison."

One of the bill's sponsors, Democratic state Sen. Robert Peters, claimed during a hearing on Tuesday that the new term does not attempt to hide the fact that a person committed a crime, but rather seeks to better define them as "someone who has been impacted by the criminal justice system and is an individual."

Along with the name change, HB4409 moves to add two members from the Illinois Department of Corrections, Department of Human Services and the Sangamon, and Cook County Adult Probation departments to the Adult Redeploy Illinois Oversight Board, along with two people who have experience with the system.

The bill has passed the Senate and is on its way to Gov. Jay Pritzker's desk.