October 27, 2011 Communications Sub-Committee Meeting

Audience

Open to the general public.

Date/Time

October 27, 2011
2:00 -4:00 PM

Location(s)

  • 823 E Monroe-Springfield, IL
  • 420 E Superior, 8th Floor-Chicago, IL

Agenda

  1. Call to Order
  2. Roll Call
  3. Approval of minutes
  4. Review of mandated reports: Status updates
    1. SB1725 Juvenile Reentry Improvement Study
    2. Raise the Age
    3. SB2151 - Sex Offender Bill
  5. Other Items / Next Steps
  6. Next meeting date
  7. Adjournment

Minutes

  1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 2:25 p.m.
  2. Roll Call: Chairman Julie Biehl, Commissioners Dana Weiner, Michael Rodriguez, Lisa Jacobs. Staff present: Jeff Bradley, Lin Ferguson.
  3. Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Weiner made a motion to approve the minutes. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Michael Rodriguez. Minutes approved.
  4. SB 1725 Juvenile Reentry Improvement Study: Commissioner Biehl will finish reviewing the current version and will send it to the Communications Committee for review. The current release date is November 29, 2011. A press release is planned announcing the release.
    Raise the Age: Stephanie Kollman reported that she is continuing to work on the study: She is looking at the JMIS numbers and the practices around detention as she thinks this is really an important issue. She has requested data from AOIC, but to date has not received it. Stephanie is still conducting some interviews and is focused on writing the report. The target finish date is December 1, 2011, but she will continue to edit the report through December. December 31, 2011 is the due date to the Legislature.
    SB2151 - Sex Offender Bill: Loyola agreed to take the lead on this study. Commissioner Biehl and Anita Weinberg have been working with students on this with Susan Witkin, Jeff Bradley and Commissioner Jacobs. They have identified the collateral consequences of being a juvenile sex offender and the crimes which constitute being a juvenile sex offender. They are also doing a review of the best practices research and making a decision on whether to do a file review or talk to stake holders. Susan Witkin has provided data on the number of juvenile sex offenders. The target date for the report is January. Dana added that she did a report for the capstone project regarding the "no where to go kids" and it showed that barriers to release are very restrictive.
  5. Other Items / Next Steps: Commissioner Jacobs received a press release detailing the vote on IYC Murphysboro closure. The vote was in favor of keeping it open. Since the Commission sent a letter stating its position on facility closure, Commissioner Jacobs suggested that the Communications Committee pull language from that letter stressing the Commission's position on facility closure and resend it. The press release announcing closure decisions will be forwarded to all Commissioners, and we will ask them to advocate for facility closure. The Public Welfare Foundation grant application was successful for the Reentry Project. The plan for the funds is to hire Stephanie Kollman, and she will begin work under that grant working on Reentry on December 1, 2011. We also received an additional $10,000 to do a fiscal analysis for aftercare versus parole and the fiscal impact and to look at cost shifting. Commissioner Biehl is looking for someone to hire to do the work on that part of the grant. Next Steps: Rework Commission's letter on facility closure and resend it.
  6. Next meeting date: Thursday, December 8, 2011, 2:00-4:00 to accommodate the completion of the Raise the Age Report. 
  7. Adjournment: Commissioner Jacobs made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Commissioner Weiner seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 p.m.