LIVE: Realizing Reform: Fixing Illinois’ Criminal Justice System

Live from Springfield tonight at 6:00 pm CST

Live from Springfield tonight at 6:00 pm CST

Gov. Bruce Rauner has tasked the state’s newly formed Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform with lowering the state’s prison population by 25 percent come 2025. This bold directive will take equally bold solutions.

Illinois’ criminal-justice system couldn’t be riper for change.

Decades of flawed sentencing laws have swelled the ranks of nonviolent offenders in state prisons, resulting in overcrowding and cash-strapped budgets.

At the same time, barriers to employment have reduced opportunities for ex-offenders, making it even more difficult not to fall back into crime. A testament to this problem is Illinois’ high rate of recidivism – 47 percent adult inmates will go back to prison within three years.

But now, a diverse coalition is looking at ways to fix the problem.

Please join experts from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, Illinois Policy Institute, Families Against Mandatory Minimums and the Justice Fellowship, along with event sponsors the Charles Koch Institute and the Illinois Policy Institute, for a conversation exploring necessary solutions to a system that has been flawed for far too long.