Illinois bill to replace 'offender' with 'justice-impacted individual' for high-risk felons

The Illinois General Assembly last week passed a bill to discontinue the use of the term “offender” for some felons and replaced it with “justice-impacted individuals.” The bill will be sent to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk for his signature.

What is the Adult Redeploy Illinois program?

Convicted criminals who are enrolled in the Adult Redeploy Illinois (ARI) program will from now on be referred to as “justice-impacted individuals” by government bodies. These include the Illinois Department of Corrections and other agencies. 

The ARI program is an “alternative” to prison offered by the State of Illinois in which “high-risk adult felons” are housed within the community under a supervisory program. According to Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, eligible candidates for the ARI program are non-violent felons with “high a risk [sic] to re-offend or violate the terms of supervision and those with high behavioral health treatment needs.” 

House Bill 4409 now requires those high-risk felons to be referred to as “justice-impacted individuals.” The bill’s passage on Tuesday drew widespread criticism, particularly from Republican legislators.

‘Apologizing for the criminal’

“There seems to be this rush to take away all accountability for people who commit crimes,” said State Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield), according to The Center Square. “If a person is going to get on the right path, they have to know they did something wrong. This apologizing for the criminal, the person who chooses to commit crimes to the detriment of our victims, the people who don’t choose to be victims of crimes, is absolutely incredible. Crime is up 38% year-to-date since 2019. Crime is up everywhere.”

‘Thousands and thousands of dollars just to do a name change’

Republican State Sen. Terri Bryant also urged his colleagues to vote no, reminding them that the change drains taxpayer dollars.

“Over and over again, we keep changing the name of how we are referring to those who have entered into criminal activity and each time we make that change, each agency has to make that change on every one of their documents,” Bryant said. “Right now in the Department of Corrections, there's multiple changes that have been made and it’s costing thousands and thousands of dollars just to do a name change. Why is it necessary to make the name change?” 

‘We [in this bill] don’t mess with…the term “victim”’

The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago), told critics that the bill does not concern itself with the word “victim.”

“That means someone who has been impacted by the criminal justice system and is an individual,” Peters said. “We [in this bill] don’t mess with anything in regards to the term ‘victim,’ we just change the word ‘offender’ to ‘justice-impacted individual.’”