Heartland Alliance Report Reveals Barriers Keeping Millions Of People From Re-Establishing Their Lives And Building A Promising Future
Data released today as part of a first-of-a-kind study confirms that more than 3.3 million people in Illinois could be impacted by permanent punishments as a result of criminal legal system involvement given the well-documented inequities that bring into question whether the system actually brings justice to people who come into contact with it. "Never Fully Free: The Scale and Impact of Permanent Punishments on People with Criminal Records in Illinois" illustrates the dramatic number of people who may be living with the stigma and limitations of a criminal record in Illinois. Since the advent of mass incarceration in 1979, there are an estimated 3.3 million adults who have been arrested or convicted of a crime in Illinois. Under current laws, these individuals have limited rights even after their criminal legal system involvement has ended. In fact, the report uncovered a vast web of 1,189 laws in Illinois that punish people with criminal records, often indefinitely.
CHICAGO, June 29, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Key findings include:
- There are 1,189 unique permanent punishment laws in Illinois. These state laws collectively act in 1,260 ways impacting people's access to housing, employment, education and more.
- Nearly 3.3 million adults were arrested or convicted of a crime in Illinois since 1979.
- 982 permanent punishment laws in Illinois create punishments that prevent or hinder access to employment.
- Black people make up 13.8% of Illinois's adult population but 28.9% of those who acquired arrest or conviction records, 34.9% of people who were convicted of crimes, and 45.3% of people who were convicted of felonies.
- 627,945 adults, or 19.2% of all people with an arrest record, were not convicted of a crime. Some permanent punishments still create barriers for those arrested but not convicted, and arrests can contribute to stigma because they can appear in some background checks and online searches.
- Black women make up 14.5% of all adult women in Illinois, but over a third of all women arrested or convicted of a crime.
See http://www.heartlandalliance.org/neverfullyfree for the full report.
SOURCE Heartland Alliance
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