The Developing Justice Coalition, an alliance of 26 community groups, is working to promote sensible criminal justice reforms in Illinois. In addition, we work on public safety issues and prison reentry.

Currently, we are hosting meetings with the State’s Attorney’s office, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, and the Chicago Bar Association in order to introduce ideas from our communities that we believe will increase public safety, strengthen the family unit, and repair the social fabric of our neighborhoods. It is our opinion that the current system of corrections for low-level nonviolent drug offenses has caused more harm than help to all of our neighborhoods.

We want to see the creation of a system of sanctions that reduces the escalating cost of corrections by eliminating mandatory sentencing and incarceration for low-level nonviolent drug offenses and provides the universal option of treatment, counseling, and community service instead. We believe a system such as this will save valuable state funds, increase the public safety in our communities, reduce the state prison population, and help low-level nonviolent drug offenders learn to function as profitable members of our communities.



Accomplishments and Past Work

Participation and Constituency

The Developing Justice Coalition started in 2002 when Rev. Patricia Watkins, Executive Director of TARGET Area Development Corporation reached out to Debra Strickland, the Executive Director of Developing Communities Project and began to convene a diverse coalition of organizations from across the city. DJC utilizes the tools of grassroots organizing, institutional relationship building, academic and community research, and advocacy for program development and policy changes as needed with the goal of realigning the criminal justice dialogue to include reforms that address the root causes of crime and decreases the racially biased outcomes of Illinois sentencing laws.

Some aspect of this problem affects all of the groups and individuals participating in the Developing Justice Coalition. They are ex-offenders, their family members, members of communities receiving large numbers of ex-offenders, people trying to place ex-offenders in jobs or staff of agencies attempting to help ex-offenders in other ways.

Power & Impact

In 2003, the group had its first legislative victory, a misdemeanor record expungement bill was passed into law. In February 2005, the governor signed SB3007, which provides for the sealing of felony records for non-violent class 4 drug and prostitution offenses. This victory was the result of efforts that included community mobilization for legislator education days in Springfield; forging of extraordinary alliances with a wide range of organizations; commissioning strategic research that directly addressed the issues; and diligent negotiation of details with potential opponents, such as the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Department of Corrections, Illinois Department of Employment Services, the Cook County Board, and State’s Attorney Dick Devine, all of whom agreed to remain neutral or work toward the passage of the legislation.

The impact of DJC’s work is that for the first time in Illinois’ history many ex-offenders throughout Illinois will now be able to seal or expunge their criminal records. They can legitimately tell a prospective employer that they have never been convicted of a felony. Thousands of employment opportunities – formerly closed – will now be open to qualified job applicants who happen to have a criminal record. People who might have been forced back into a life of crime may be able to find work, which will make their communities safer.

Synergy

The Developing Justice Coalition did together what none of the groups in the Coalition could have done alone. The member groups motivated each other, inspired each other, and kept each other’s spirits up when hope was low and shared lessons from their respective schools and styles of organizing. Policy makers in Springfield were surprised to find a broad cross-community collaborative that could clearly articulate why these policy changes were critical to every community in the State of Illinois. Some key votes were turned by the very multi-ethnic, citywide nature of the Coalition.