Sentencing disparity goes unexamined - 2002 in Review

In a year when their time was consumed by an election, a floundering economy and debate over the fate of Death Row inmates, lawmakers showed that criminal justice reform and politics often don't mix--despite Coy. George H. Ryan's declaration that the state's criminal justice system was "broken."

Last January, The Chicago Reporter found that blacks and Latinos in Cook County faced stiffer sentences than whites for the same drug crimes between 1995 and 2000. Even when they had similar criminal histories, blacks and Latinos were more likely to get prison time and less likely to receive probation than whites.

Some area leaders, including the county's top judge and a few legislators, vowed to examine the disparities further.

But the same story could be told now, a year later. The disparity--and the promise of examination--remains. In 2001, blacks were nearly twice as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison when convicted of the lowest-level drug offenses, according to a new Reporter analysis.

State Rep. Constance Howard, a South Side Democrat, was outraged by the Reporter's findings a year ago and requested that the Judiciary II committee of the Illinois General Assembly bold a hearing to discuss the findings. The committee did so in December 2001, but no additional hearings were held in 2002.

"All of the death penalty stuff came in and took precedence over anything that the committee doing.... That has really been the primary focus," said state Rep. Mary K. O'Brien of the far south suburban 75th District. The committee was also waiting for concerned legislators to bring forth legislation, she said. None did.

Howard said that she didn't spend much time on the issue in 2002 but still talks with people about it. "I've got to get back to it. I understand that and probably will."

The Circuit Court of Cook County's Chief Judge, Tim Evans, said he would form a committee of judges, attorneys and others to discuss the matter. He is now assembling that committee.

Last year, Bill O'Brien, the former head of the narcotics division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, said that office might conduct its own study of drug sentences. No comprehensive study has been done but the idea has not been ruled out, spokesman Jerry Lawrence said. "Besides [the Reporter's] story, it isn't a problem that has presented itself," he said, adding that the disparities don't "have anything to do with the way we try cases."

In May, Ryan introduced a bill calling for sweeping changes in the state's criminal justice system, like reducing the number of death penalty-eligible crimes from 20 to five and requiring that police and prosecutors videotape interrogations and confessions.

The governor's bill was based on 85 recommendations forwarded by the governor's Commission on Capital Punishment after it concluded a two-year look at the death penalty in Illinois.

Lawmakers, however, proposed a watered-down alternative, which the Senate passed and the House will consider in January. But critics believe the governor will veto it.

"It was, to me, a scaling back of the recommendations with an eye toward pleasing law enforcement and prosecutors rather than doing justice," said Cook County Public Defender Rita Fry, who served on the commission.

She said the controversy over this fall's clemency hearings for more than 140 Death Row inmates has also deflected attention away from the larger issue. But criminal justice reform has always been a hard sell for some lawmakers.

"People are still concerned about them being labeled soft on crime," said Howard, who proposed six bills last year that would automatically expunge some non-violent felonies from the records of ex-offenders once they've been released from prison.

Howard saw her legislation as a way to improve employment opportunities and reduce prison re-entry rates. But only one of the bills made it out of committee, and it has not been passed.

A new governor and a Democratic-controlled General Assembly are giving Howard reason to believe the outlook will be brighter this year. But others aren't holding their breath.

"The [governor-elect] or somebody on his behalf ... has to say it's time to restructure and refocus the criminal justice system," said Fry. "But I haven't heard anybody say that."

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