SB2071 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 05287 SPS 50305 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB2071

Introduced 2/9/2023, by Sen. Erica Harriss

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

410 ILCS 705/10-40

Amends the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. Provides that within 90 days after the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Areas have been designated by the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board, the Board chair shall appoint 8 public officials of municipal or county (rather than municipal) geographic jurisdictions in the State that include a Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Area to the Board.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning health.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act is amended by changing Section 10-40 as follows:

(410 ILCS 705/10-40)

Sec. 10-40. Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program.

(a) The General Assembly finds that in order to address the disparities described below, aggressive approaches and targeted resources to support local design and control of community-based responses to these outcomes are required. To carry out this intent, the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) Program is created for the following purposes:

(1) to directly address the impact of economic disinvestment, violence, and the historical overuse of criminal justice responses to community and individual needs by providing resources to support local design and control of community-based responses to these impacts;

(2) to substantially reduce both the total amount of gun violence and concentrated poverty in this State;

(3) to protect communities from gun violence through targeted investments and intervention programs, including economic growth and improving family violence prevention, community trauma treatment rates, gun injury victim services, and public health prevention activities;

(4) to promote employment infrastructure and capacity building related to the social determinants of health in the eligible community areas.

(b) In this Section, "Authority" means the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority in coordination with the Justice, Equity, and Opportunity Initiative of the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

(c) Eligibility of R3 Areas. Within 180 days after the effective date of this Act, the Authority shall identify as eligible, areas in this State by way of historically recognized geographic boundaries, to be designated by the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board as R3 Areas and therefore eligible to apply for R3 funding. Local groups within R3 Areas will be eligible to apply for State funding through the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board. Qualifications for designation as an R3 Area are as follows:

(1) Based on an analysis of data, communities in this State that are high need, underserved, disproportionately impacted by historical economic disinvestment, and ravaged by violence as indicated by the highest rates of gun injury, unemployment, child poverty rates, and commitments to and returns from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

(2) The Authority shall send to the Legislative Audit Commission and make publicly available its analysis and identification of eligible R3 Areas and shall recalculate the eligibility data every 4 years. On an annual basis, the Authority shall analyze data and indicate if data covering any R3 Area or portion of an Area has, for 4 consecutive years, substantially deviated from the average of statewide data on which the original calculation was made to determine the Areas, including disinvestment, violence, gun injury, unemployment, child poverty rates, or commitments to or returns from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

(d) The Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board shall encourage collaborative partnerships within each R3 Area to minimize multiple partnerships per Area.

(e) The Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board is created and shall reflect the diversity of the State of Illinois, including geographic, racial, and ethnic diversity. Using the data provided by the Authority, the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board shall be responsible for designating the R3 Area boundaries and for the selection and oversight of R3 Area grantees. The Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board ex officio members shall, within 4 months after the effective date of this Act, convene the Board to appoint a full Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board and oversee, provide guidance to, and develop an administrative structure for the R3 Program.

(1) The ex officio members are:

(A) The Lieutenant Governor, or his or her designee, who shall serve as chair.

(B) The Attorney General, or his or her designee.

(C) The Director of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, or his or her designee.

(D) The Director of Public Health, or his or her designee.

(E) The Director of Corrections, or his or her designee.

(F) The Director of Juvenile Justice, or his or her designee.

(G) The Director of Children and Family Services, or his or her designee.

(H) The Executive Director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, or his or her designee.

(I) The Director of Employment Security, or his or her designee.

(J) The Secretary of Human Services, or his or her designee.

(K) A member of the Senate, designated by the President of the Senate.

(L) A member of the House of Representatives, designated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(M) A member of the Senate, designated by the Minority Leader of the Senate.

(N) A member of the House of Representatives, designated by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.

(2) Within 90 days after the R3 Areas have been designated by the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board, the following members shall be appointed to the Board by the R3 board chair:

(A) Eight public officials of municipal or county geographic jurisdictions in the State that include an R3 Area, or their designees;

(B) Four community-based providers or community development organization representatives who provide services to treat violence and address the social determinants of health, or promote community investment, including, but not limited to, services such as job placement and training, educational services, workforce development programming, and wealth building. The community-based organization representatives shall work primarily in jurisdictions that include an R3 Area and no more than 2 representatives shall work primarily in Cook County. At least one of the community-based providers shall have expertise in providing services to an immigrant population;

(C) Two experts in the field of violence reduction;

(D) One male who has previously been incarcerated and is over the age of 24 at the time of appointment;

(E) One female who has previously been incarcerated and is over the age of 24 at the time of appointment;

(F) Two individuals who have previously been incarcerated and are between the ages of 17 and 24 at the time of appointment; and

(G) Eight individuals who live or work in an R3 Area.

As used in this paragraph (2), "an individual who has been previously incarcerated" means a person who has been convicted of or pled guilty to one or more felonies, who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, and who has completed his or her sentence. Board members shall serve without compensation and may be reimbursed for reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their duties from funds appropriated for that purpose. Once all its members have been appointed as outlined in items (A) through (F) of this paragraph (2), the Board may exercise any power, perform any function, take any action, or do anything in furtherance of its purposes and goals upon the appointment of a quorum of its members. The Board terms of the non-ex officio and General Assembly Board members shall end 4 years from the date of appointment. The R3 board chair may remove an individual appointed to the Board who does not regularly attend Board meetings, based on criteria approved by the Board.

(f) Within 12 months after the effective date of this Act, the Board shall:

(1) develop a process to solicit applications from eligible R3 Areas;

(2) develop a standard template for both planning and implementation activities to be submitted by R3 Areas to the State;

(3) identify resources sufficient to support the full administration and evaluation of the R3 Program, including building and sustaining core program capacity at the community and State levels;

(4) review R3 Area grant applications and proposed agreements and approve the distribution of resources;

(5) develop a performance measurement system that focuses on positive outcomes;

(6) develop a process to support ongoing monitoring and evaluation of R3 programs; and

(7) deliver an annual report to the General Assembly and to the Governor to be posted on the Governor's Office and General Assembly websites and provide to the public an annual report on its progress.

(g) R3 Area grants.

(1) Grant funds shall be awarded by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, in coordination with the R3 board, based on the likelihood that the plan will achieve the outcomes outlined in subsection (a) and consistent with the requirements of the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act. The R3 Program shall also facilitate the provision of training and technical assistance for capacity building within and among R3 Areas.

(2) R3 Program Board grants shall be used to address economic development, violence prevention services, re-entry services, youth development, and civil legal aid.

(3) The Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board and the R3 Area grantees shall, within a period of no more than 120 days from the completion of planning activities described in this Section, finalize an agreement on the plan for implementation. Implementation activities may:

(A) have a basis in evidence or best practice research or have evaluations demonstrating the capacity to address the purpose of the program in subsection (a);

(B) collect data from the inception of planning activities through implementation, with data collection technical assistance when needed, including cost data and data related to identified meaningful short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals and metrics;

(C) report data to the Restore, Reinvest, and Renew Program Board biannually; and

(D) report information as requested by the R3 Program Board.

(Source: P.A. 101-27, eff. 6-25-19; 101-593, eff. 12-4-19; 102-98, eff. 7-15-21.)