March 31

• SB 3072 — Habitual Criminal Sentencing Reform Senate Bill 3072 (SB3072) amends the Unified Code of Corrections to change the three-strike sentencing enhancement’s eligibility criteria by raising the required age at the first strike for a natural life enhancement and (2) by limiting the eligible felonies to only forcible felonies for the Class X enhancement. These two changes reduce the number of individuals who would be eligible for the habitual criminal sentencing enhancement.

SB3072 requires all three qualifying offenses to happen after the individual reaches 21 years of age or older. Eligible offenses include all Class X felonies, criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnaping, or first-degree murder.

• SB 3349 — Reduce/Remove Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR) Terms Senate Bill 3349 (SB3349) reduces the required Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR) period for Class X felonies, excluding some sex offenses, from 3 years to 18 months and reduces the MSR period for Class 1 and Class 2 felonies from 2 years to 12 months.1 SB3349 also provides that MSR shall not be imposed on individuals leaving prison for Class 3 and Class 4 felonies unless the Prisoner Review Board (PRB) determines it is necessary based on a validated risk and needs assessment and the period is limited to 6-12 months, depending on felony class level.

Due to data limitations, SPAC was unable to estimate the fiscal impact of this change on the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). There was sufficient data to determine which individuals admitted to IDOC would have been impacted had this proposed measure been in effect over the past three years.

Feburary 13

• SB 2292– Changes to Felony Murder: Senate Bill 2292 (SB2292) amends the first-degree murder statue to separate felony murder into cases where the person causes death while committing a forcible felony other than second-degree murder, (a)(3), and cases where the other parties to the forcible felony cause the death, (a)(4). Consistent with the current laws, both primary and accountable defendants would face first-degree murder sentencing.

SPAC could not determine the impact of SB2292, as it creates a new category of felony murder and retains the same sentencing provisions. The following analysis provides a full description of the potentially eligible population and current sentencing practices under first-degree murder. Overall, in the past three years there were 578 people admitted to prison on these first-degree murder charges. Some of these admissions might have been affected had this bill been in effect over the past three years.