* From an email…
Loyola’s Center for Criminal Justice just published a research brief plus a data dashboard that looks at the use of probation versus prison in Illinois over the past 20 years across each of the 102 counties in the state. This is the first time information like this has been examined and made available in Illinois.
Bottom lines:
1) Because of the general drop in crime and arrests, the number of people convicted of a felony in Illinois has decreased, but so too has the likelihood that those convicted are being sentenced to prison. Among those convicted of Class 1-4 felonies, in 2010 45% got a prison sentence, by 2023 that fell to 34%;
2) This pattern is not due to Cook County alone, but rather, represents a shift in sentencing practices across most (70%) of Illinois’ 102 counties;
3) These shifts have likely occurred due to improved probation services, increased use of treatment courts, and a general shift in thinking about the most effective responses to crime, and;
4) The net impact of the change in sentencing patterns over the past 10 years translates to 30,000 fewer people sentenced to prison, which explains a lot of the decrease in the Illinois prison population.
* From the Loyola research brief…
* According to that research brief, “70% of counties saw a decrease in proportion of people sentenced to prison for a Class 1 to 4 Felony from 2010 to 2023″…
I asked about the roughly 30 percent which saw an increase. Here’s the list…
Adams, Bond, Boone, Calhoun, Carroll, Clark, Crawford, Fayette, Ford, Fulton, Gallatin, Hardin, Jackson, Jefferson, Jersey, Kendall, Lee, Logan, McDonough, McHenry, Menard, Ogle, Perry, Piatt, Pike, Randolph, Saline, Shelby, Wabash
You can look at the data by county or by category by clicking here. The dashboard allows you to look at urban vs. rural counties. Here’s the list of urban counties, which they took from IDPH…
Champaign, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, Macon, Madison, McHenry, McLean, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Tazewell, Vermilion, Will, Winnebago
Four counties are missing in the data, either because they didn’t report 2023 numbers (DeWitt and Morgan) or, in the case of Greene and Scott, they consolidated probation departments.
