Without a job, an ex-offender is likely to re-enter the system. Finding work breaks that cycle. Illinois needs major re-entry reforms that remove barriers to employment and work – and give ex-offenders a chance at success.

HB 5973 would remove significant occupational-licensing barriers that make it harder for former offenders to support themselves and their families.

Letting nonviolent former offenders petition to have their records sealed and protecting businesses from negligent-hiring lawsuits would do more to encourage hiring ex-offenders than “ban the box” alone.

Illinois needs much more in the way of reforms if state politicians are going to truly fix the state’s broken criminal-justice system.

A new study by The Pew Charitable Trusts shows states that adjusted their felony theft laws have not seen an increase in crime. To save on corrections costs, Illinois should update its theft thresholds, too.

The governor has proposed criminal-justice reforms to save Illinois taxpayers $300 million over the next four years while improving outcomes for offenders and their communities.

A proposal to criminalize recording and posting fights would violate the First Amendment rights of Illinois residents

Closing the Illinois Youth Center in Kewanee, with its $84,000 per-youth annual operating cost, will help save money and redirect resources toward more effective treatment programs for juvenile offenders.

Issuing state IDs to ex-offenders upon release from prison is a simple reform that can help them succeed in finding work and a place to live.

New polling shows large majorities of Illinois Republican and Democratic voters think the state’s criminal-justice system needs a major overhaul.