Winnebago County state’s attorney looks to expand deferred prosecution program

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley is working to expand a program that allows nonviolent offenders to avoid a conviction if they complete certain steps aimed at helping them build a more productive life.

The existing deferred prosecution program averages between 40 and 60 participants and Hanley hopes to double those numbers. His office is seeking funding that will help pay for the cost of the program, such as the price of treatment or counseling services that can be a barrier for participants.

The goal of the program is to improve public safety by helping people avoid committing future criminal offenses while reducing the cost of prosecuting non-violent offenders so court resources can be shifted to the most serious cases. The later could help speed the pace of other, more serious cases through the system.

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Participants, meanwhile, get the chance to avoid a criminal conviction on their record and get access to services that could help them build a better life.

“If you do it right, you’re still holding people accountable, but they avoid the conviction,” Hanley said. “You can have someone avoid that retail theft conviction, which, even in Illinois which has changed its laws, is still going to prevent that person probably from getting hired or being able to go into certain professions.”

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Participants will generally be charged with nonviolent crimes such as retail theft, criminal damage to property or drug possession and have no felonies on their record. They would plead guilty to the offense, but then be eligible to have that conviction expunged from the record if they complete the program.

There would be a range of alternatives for participants depending on the nature of the crime, but those services will be provided by other organizations in the community rather than filling up the criminal justice system. The hope is that allows their needs to be met while still holding them accountable.

“The community is better at rehabilitating people than we are. We can sometimes be the hammer,” Hanley said. “Schools and churches and whomever, counselors, they’re better. Getting people back to the community I think is really important.”

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The state’s attorney’s office would also partner with Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Urban Research and Learning and Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology to evaluate the program.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas