Judge's Orders Still Being Denied

Yesterday, I briefly mentioned the fight between Cook County Judges and the Illinois State Police regarding the sealing and/or expunging arrests and convictions for certain crimes. Today, I was shocked to find additional coverage by the Sun-Time's Mary Mitchell on the subject:

March 19, Chicago, Il-

Four years ago, Illinois lawmakers who represent districts with large African-American and Latino populations were celebrating legislation that was designed to make it easier for ex-offenders to re-integrate into society.

It was a hard-fought victory.

Expungements and the sealing of criminal records of people with low-level felony or misdemeanor arrests or convictions were viewed as critical to urban communities where unemployment figures were double-digits long before the country sank into a steep recession.

The in-depth investigatory piece by the Chicago Reporter got the ball rolling. They discovered thousands of expungements were being denied by the Illinois State Police, after Cook County Judges had granted them. Here are a few of the appalling statistics:

• Statewide, about 1,800 of the 21,000 sealing and expungement orders issued after the amendment, between 2006 and 2008, went unenforced.
• An additional 900 or so orders went unenforced before the amendment, starting in 1991, when some ex-offender advocates believe the practice began.
• Statewide, 5 percent of the 412 court orders issued in 2008 went unenforced.
• Orders issued by Paul P. Biebel Jr., presiding judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County Criminal Division, got ignored about 13 percent of the time in 2007.

The statistics differ from the numbers released by the Reporter on March 13, because the police retracted the data they issued on March 5. Lt. Scott Compton, the chief public information officer for the police, said his department miscalculated the earlier figures. Rather than counting the total number of court orders they received and denied, it tallied the number of criminal charges on each order, he said.

Even Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General, is looking for an explanation as to why the Illinois State Police would break the law by defying the orders of judges to seal or expunge these criminal records and/or arrests.

This is an unbelievable defiance of the law,” said Attorney General Madigan. “Ignoring these expungement orders negatively impacts the lives of people who deserve a fair opportunity to get a job, find housing and take care of their families. I have taken immediate action to remedy this problem and to hold ISP and Director Larry Trent accountable.”

Last week, Attorney General Madigan learned of ISP’s failure to comply with years of orders to expunge and seal records entered by circuit court judges in Cook County and in counties across Illinois. The number of orders at issue likely exceeds 6,000 in Cook County alone. Illinois law allows certain criminal and traffic offenses to be expunged or sealed. The expungement and sealing process is critical for people who are seeking employment, job licenses and certificates, or applying for housing or loans.

In these critical economic times, all I can say is well done to the Attorney General, The Chicago Reporter, and the Chicago Sun-Times. It is hard enough to get a job or keep a job, when there are arrests or old crimes you thought were expunged, because the judge told you so, and then you find out the Police refuse to comply. That's a lot of nerve, perhaps we are heading to a police state afterall.

Perhaps, once this mess is straightened out, our legislators will look to increase the number of matters covered under the expungement/sealing legislation.