Criminal Justice

Appropriates $38,275,200 from the General Revenue Fund to the Office of the State Appellate Defender for its ordinary and contingent expenses. Effective July 1, 2025.

Amends the Illinois Police Training Act. Provides that the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board shall conduct or approve training programs in crimes motivated by bias. Includes requirements for the training programs. Requires the training for new law enforcement officers and allows continuing education credits for current law enforcement officers who complete the training.

HB 3995 is an appropriations bill that allocates specific funds from various state funds to the Office of the Attorney General for existing programs. It directs $90 million for general operations, $11 million for violent crime victims assistance, $5 million to the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, $2.5 million for Medicaid fraud enforcement, and additional sums for domestic violence services, tobacco litigation oversight, and other AG functions. The bill does not create new policies but specifies funding sources and purposes for current Attorney General programs. It becomes effective July 1, 2025, and directly affects the Attorney General's office and the organizations receiving these grants.

Amends the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Provides that any person may file a petition to vacate a conviction or sentence, regardless of criminal custody status or citizenship or immigration status, as defined in the Illinois TRUST Act, if the person asserts that: (1) the conviction or sentence is legally invalid due to prejudicial error damaging the petitioner's ability to meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept the actual or potential adverse immigration consequences of a conviction or sentence; or (2) newly discovered evidence of actual innocence exists that requires vacation of the conviction or sentence as a matter of law or in the interests of justice. Provides that such a petition shall be deemed timely filed at any time notwithstanding any other provision of law. Provides that the time limitations for petitions filed in the trial court under the Post-Conviction Hearing Article of the Code do not apply to a petition filed under this provision. Amends the Code of Civil Procedure. Provides that a provision granting relief from a final order or judgment entered based on a plea of guilty or nolo contendere and that has potential consequences under federal immigration law applies to orders or judgments entered before, on, or after the effective date of the amendatory Act.

Amends the Election Code. Provides that a person convicted of a felony or otherwise under sentence in a correctional institution shall have his or her right to vote restored and shall be eligible to vote not later than 14 days following his or her conviction. Provides that a correctional institution shall make available to a person in its custody current election resource material from the State Board of Elections and current election resource material that is requested by a person in custody and received at the correctional institution from a local election authority in response to the request. Creates the Post-Conviction Task Force to strengthen and improve provisions that restore the right to vote to a person convicted of a felony or otherwise under sentence in a correctional institution. Makes other changes. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections to make conforming changes. Effective January 1, 2026.

Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that, except for certain types of first degree murder, the court may, in its discretion, sentence a defendant who was under 21 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense to a sentence that is less than the applicable minimum determinate sentence of imprisonment for the offense authorized by the Code. Provides that the court, at the sentencing hearing, shall consider certain mitigating factors when a person commits an offense and the person is under 21 (rather than 18) years of age at the time of the commission of the offense. Effective immediately.

Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that a person charged with involuntary sexual servitude of a minor or trafficking in persons if the victim is under 18 years of age shall not be permitted to plead down to lesser offenses. Provides that no person charged with grooming shall be permitted to plead down to lesser offenses. Provides that prosecutors are prohibited from offering plea bargains to lesser offenses to those individuals charged with grooming. Provides that it is a Class 4 felony for a child sex offender to knowingly operate, manage, be employed by, volunteer at, be associated with, or knowingly be present at any facility providing entertainment exclusively directed toward persons under the age of 18.

Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the Department of Corrections shall create and implement a policy of electronic scanning and processing of all incoming mail in all Department of Corrections institutions and facilities, including the use of drug interdiction technologies to protect the health and safety of committed persons, the Department's staff, and its contractors. Provides that the policy shall require that mail processed electronically shall be available to committed persons only through kiosk and tablet services. Provides that the policy shall require that the mail be held in storage for a period of time by the correctional institution or facility or destroyed, as determined by the Director of Corrections. Provides that the Department shall adopt rules to implement this provision. Effective immediately.

Amends the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Provides that a petitioner for post-conviction relief who was convicted of a felony offense committed when that person was under 21 years of age who seeks leave to file a successive post-conviction petition claiming that his or her sentence violates the proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution does not have to demonstrate cause. Effective immediately.

Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that on and after the effective date of the amendatory Act, the Department of Corrections shall make available to each person within the Department's custody all rehabilitative and educational programs and services available to committed persons within that committed person's facility if the committed person is otherwise qualified for those programs and services, notwithstanding the committed person's projected release date. Effective immediately.