HB2500ham001 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch

Filed: 4/8/2019

10100HB2500ham001 LRB101 08970 SLF 59465 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 2500

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 2500 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Purpose.

(a) This Act provides for the purpose of maintaining complete and accurate criminal records of the Department of State Police and it is necessary for all policing bodies of this State, the clerk of the circuit court, the Department of Corrections, the sheriff of each county, and State's Attorney of each county to submit certain criminal arrest, charge, and disposition information to the Department of State Police for filing at the earliest time possible. This Act also provides that it shall be the duty of all policing bodies of this State, the clerk of the circuit court, the Department of Corrections, the sheriff of each county, and the State's Attorney of each county to report such information, both in the form and manner required by the Department of State Police and within 30 days of the criminal history event. Specifically, this information is: (1) arrest information; (2) charge information; and (3) disposition information.

(b) Circuit clerks, law enforcement, and courts throughout this State all operate on unique information technology systems. Some jurisdictions have been unable to digitize older court records and those remain paper based.

(c) Individuals seeking to have records sealed or expunged have to know their complete criminal history, which includes everywhere they have been arrested and what is the disposition of each arrest. Official criminal history rap sheets are often times incomplete and not updated and charging information and disposition information are not available on arrests. Municipal ordinance arrests and certain misdemeanors are not reported which leads to cases showing up in clerk's records, but not on the official record.

(d) When filing expungement and sealing petitions, accuracy is important and knowing the proper waiting period for sealing from point of last sentence. Once an individual receives his or her complete criminal history transcript from the Department of State Police, the disposition needs to be verified in each appropriate clerk's system. Due to the lack of clear reporting, individuals must deal with the discrepancies because the reports do not always correspond.

(e) Within each jurisdiction exists differing filing procedures, and while filing fees for the indigent and juveniles is waived, the Department's fee is currently a standard $60, however, county level filing fees differ all over the State.

(f) State law provides that objections to a petition to expunge or seal must be filed within 60 days of the date of service of the petition, which has had varying interpretations. The courts do not have an imposed time limit to set a court date. Lengthy court dates are an obstacle to getting orders signed in higher volume court systems and obtaining a court date may take as long as 9 months to actually get an order signed, which is several months after the objection period.

(g) While the petitioner faces challenges navigating the process for a variety of reasons, the court, clerks of the circuit court, and law enforcement struggle with complying with the sealing and expungement process, a combination of competing priorities, technology, and adequate staffing. As a result, sealing and expungement orders are sometimes granted for incidents which are ineligible. During the past few years, the General Assembly has made several well-intentioned changes to the sealing and expungement statute, however these changes can sometimes be redundant, inconsistent, and confusing. Future changes should be more readable, understandable, and consistent.

Section 5. The Criminal Identification Act is amended by adding Section 6 as follows:

(20 ILCS 2630/6 new)

Sec. 6. Expungement and Sealing Task Force.

(a) The Expungement and Sealing Task Force is created. The purpose of the Task Force is to conduct an intensive study and analysis of this State's expungement and sealing laws. The goal of this analysis should include, but not be limited to, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the following areas: criminal history record information, petition filing, petition notice, court proceedings, challenges for petitioners filing pro se, resources, personnel, technology and dissemination of criminal history information and to recommend improvements and propose legislative initiatives to the sealing and expungement law to the General Assembly.

(b) The Task Force shall consist of 21 members as follows:

(1) one member each, appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, and the Minority Leader of the Senate;

(2) 2 members representing circuit court clerks, appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(3) 3 members appointed by the Governor, 2 of which are members of organizations working in adult and juvenile sealing and expungement matters;

(4) one member appointed by the Director of State Police;

(5) one member representing an association representing State's Attorneys, appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(6) one member representing an association representing chiefs of police, appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives;

(7) one member representing an association representing sheriffs, appointed by the Senate Minority Leader;

(8) one member representing the Office of the State Appellate Defender;

(9) one member representing the Office of the State Appellate Prosecutor;

(10) one member representing an association representing Illinois lawyers, appointed by the Senate President; and

(11) 5 members appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, including one member with experience with sealing and expungement standardized forms.

(c) At the direction of the Supreme Court, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts shall provide administrative support to the Task Force.

(d) The Task Force shall submit a report containing its findings and any recommendations to the Supreme Court and the General Assembly by April 1, 2020.

(e) The Task Force is dissolved on January 1, 2021.

(f) This Section is repealed on January 1, 2022.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.".