Residency restrictions letter to Gov. Pritzker
Report on entirely preventable homelessness and incarceration, disporportionately impacting poor Black men
July 7, 2020
TO: Governor J.B. Pritzker
Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton
Senator Elgie R. Sims, Chairperson, Criminal Law Committee
Representative Justin Slaughter, Chairperson, Judiciary-Criminal Committee
RE: Emergency Response to Incarceration and Homelessness
Thank you for your rigorous implementation of best practices in public health, epidemiology, and medicine in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are grateful to your administration for your tireless advocacy on behalf of all Illinoisans.
Today we are writing to ask that you adopt two modest proposals to address the problems caused by Illinois residency restrictions, which force thousands of Illinoisans—very disproportionately Black men—into lifelong homelessness and re-incarceration. These restrictions sabotage re-entry by keeping 1 in 27 Illinois prisoners imprisoned past their release dates, and they permanently structurally exclude people with past convictions from housing.
Recommendation 1. Grant the Illinois Department of Corrections the discretion to modify residency restrictions for people incarcerated past their release dates while they are on Mandatory Supervised Release.
Recommendation 2. Provide state law enforcement agencies discretion to suspend the enforcement of residency restrictions during the pandemic.
Last year, an alliance of criminal justice, housing, and victim advocates came together to reform residency restrictions for people with past sex offense convictions, recognizing that they do not improve public safety, and instead cause immense and preventable harm.
In the midst of a global pandemic, that damage is multiplied. These restrictions, which have produced a permanent Black underclass, now also endanger community health, particularly in African-American neighborhoods already coping with the highest rates of homelessness, incarceration, prison returns, and COVID deaths.
Below, we detail the impact of these sweeping laws and outline two no-cost proposals to open up housing for hundreds of people who are currently incarcerated or homeless. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to address historic and current racism in both housing and the criminal legal system.
IMPACT OF ILLINOIS RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS
1. Alarming numbers of Illinoisans are listed on public conviction registries and subject to residency restrictions—disproportionately Black men.
• One in every 212 men in Illinois is listed on the sex offense registry.
• One in every 84 Black men in Illinois is listed on the sex offense registry.
• One in every 147 men in Illinois is listed on a public conviction registry.
• One in every 42 Black men in Illinois is listed on a public conviction registry.
2. Illinois residency restrictions banish thousands of people from most housing in cities or towns, especially in poor communities.
• People subject to these laws are barred from living a city block and a half around property lines of schools, parks, playgrounds, daycares, and other regularly-spaced institutions.
• Taken together, the invisible and overlapping 500-foot restrictions block most housing options in non-rural areas. (See the map of Chicago housing banishment below).
• Because subsidies for providing home daycare are so common in low-income communities, neighborhoods with affordable housing are most likely to be prohibited.
3. Illinois has created a permanent underclass of Black men who are homeless and must register weekly.
• 1 in 5 people listed on the sex offense registry in Chicago is homeless.
• 80% of those homeless are Black men who stay on the west and south sides of Chicago.
• Because they are homeless, they are required to re-register each week in person with local law enforcement.
• Weekly registration curtails job options and forces people to miss work, so housing becomes even more unattainable.
4. Illinois residency restrictions keep 1,400 people imprisoned past their release dates—a number equivalent to the population of an entire prison.
• 1,100 people remain incarcerated past their release dates because they lack housing for MSR, a problem caused by residency restrictions. (Note that nearly 1/3 of this group is imprisoned for a failure-to-report offense, which itself usually stems from lack of housing.)
• Because they don’t have homes, Illinois forces them to spend their entire community supervision term inside prison. Then, after that term ends, they are released to homelessness.
• 300 additional people remain imprisoned past the end of their full sentence. Illinois is under a permanent federal injunction to find them housing and release them by 2021.
• Inflating the prison population endangers prisoners and staff. The close proximity in cells and housing units does not allow for safe physical distancing inside Illinois prisons.
5. Illinois residency restrictions force hundreds of people into homelessness.
• There are currently 559 Chicagoans who are homeless and listed on the sex offense registry, which means it is illegal for them to stay or "double-up" at any address that is not registrable.
• To put this number in context, there are approximately 1,260 people total who are unsheltered and homeless in Chicago, as estimated by point-in-time surveys.
6. Illinois residency restrictions lead to arrests for hyper-technicalities that stem from lack of housing.
• Along with registries, residency restrictions result in ongoing negative police attention for life.
• People can be charged with “failure to comply” for staying at any address that is not legal, “doubling up” with friends or family, or missing weekly registration for any reason.
• Because people subject to residency restrictions are excluded from shelters, they may be forced to choose between sleeping indoors illegally—or staying outdoors and jeopardizing their health and survival.
• Most Chicagoans registering as homeless have already served 1 or more new prison sentences for failure to comply. Because they lack housing, most spent extra years in prison past their release date.
7. Illinois residency restrictions force even people with safe and stable housing available into homelessness and extended incarceration.
• The majority of people who are homeless or incarcerated due to residency restrictions already have or had secure housing options where they would be welcome to live were it not for these policies—including homes of family members and apartments they could lease.
• But someone can have five homes available—or 55—and still be homeless due to residency restrictions.
8. If someone is living in legal housing, it may suddenly become “illegal”—ensuring lifelong housing instability.
• The housing banishment zones created by residency restrictions are constantly shifting, forcing people to move within 30 days even if they own or lease their homes.
• Such evictions are common in poor communities, where households receiving daycare subsidies from IDHS are ubiquitous and new people sign up all the time.
• These restrictions last for life, even if someone is no longer required to be listed on the registry.
9. Barring people from housing worsens life outcomes for their families and children.
• Most people with convictions are parents and these laws hinder their efforts to support their children.
• When a parent is forced into homelessness, their whole family is fractured or destabilized. Children either lose a parent in the home or become homeless with the parent.
• Targeting people with past convictions for negative police attention compounds the harm of system involvement and passes it down to the next generation.
• In contrast, Housing First and supportive service models strengthen families and communities impacted by both crime and incarceration.
10. Residency restrictions have been fully discredited, which is why many states don’t have them at all.
• Residency restrictions have been carefully evaluated. They provide no public safety benefit. In fact, they likely harm public safety. Crime is not prevented by barring people from housing.
• There are many pathways that lead to child abuse, sexual harm, and desensitization to violence. Effective primary and secondary prevention targets the social determinants of abuse and violence by addressing and meeting the needs of those at risk of being harmed or causing harm.
• The vast majority of people on registries are past the “redemption point”—their probability of re-offense is unremarkable and no greater than it would be for anyone with any criminal record.
• The public wants proven policies to prevent community and interpersonal violence, not misinformation and gimmicks.
STRATEGIES TO DRASTICALLY REDUCE INCARCERATION AND HOMELESSNESS—BY ALLOWING PEOPLE TO LIVE IN AVAILABLE HOUSING
RECOMMENDATION 1:
Grant the Illinois Department of Corrections the discretion to modify 500-foot residency restrictions for people incarcerated past their release dates while they are still on Mandatory Supervised Release.
IMPACT:
Safely release some 1,000 people without reducing sentences or changing release dates.
• IDOC already has full discretion over and fully vets every “host site” placement for someone on MSR supervision. However, most available housing has to be rejected only due to residency restrictions.
• IDOC parole officers can carefully vet and select safe and appropriate housing. Parole officers would be available to talk to neighbors.
• Currently some 1,100 of the people currently imprisoned past their release dates will spend their entire period of community supervision in prison, an additional 1-3 years.
• This reform would allow people to serve their supervised release. And because they would be outside prison, it would give them more time to seek housing and try to prevent their own homelessness once supervision is completed.
• This program would immediately address the terms of the permanent federal injunction re Murphy et al., v. Raoul, et al., Case #16-cv-11471 (U.S.D.C., Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division) (Kendall, J.) to release 300 people incarcerated past their outdates by January 2, 2021. The federal injunction specifies that the State identify alternatives to imprisonment, including legislative changes, that will “most easily and economically fulfill the State's constitutional obligations.”
• Reducing prison populations will reduce morbidity and mortality of staff and incarcerated people who have unavoidable and prolonged contact in closed facilities that lack windows, ventilation, space for physical distancing, and adequate PPE.
RECOMMENDATION 2:
Provide state law enforcement agencies discretion to suspend the enforcement of 500-foot residency restrictions during the pandemic and let people stay in housing available to them.
IMPACT:
Swiftly reduce the number of people who are homeless by 300-400 at no cost and without allocating additional resources.
• Cited by the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, as a strategy to reduce COVID-19 exposure.
• People who are homeless have multiple, intersecting risk factors for COVID exposure.
• Some 80% are Black men who stay in communities with escalated rates of COVID illness and death.
• Legally, they may stay indoors during the day taking care of their kids or parents—or family members with COVID—but they must spend the night elsewhere or face arrest for “failure to report.”
• Shelters won’t accept people on registries, largely due to residency restrictions. Police tell them to sleep in trains, airports, emergency rooms, and cars.
• Without housing, they travel back and forth from various homes into public spaces, which endangers their families and community health.
• Most people could easily be housed if their existing housing options were not illegal. Many people even help their families pay rent. Others couch surf among a variety of residences.
• Public health mandates staying at home. Complying with this mandate by utilizing available housing should not be a crime.
SIGNED
ILLINOIS ORGANIZATIONS
Chicago 400 Alliance
—Chicago 400
—Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE)
—Institute on Public Safety & Social Justice, Adler University
—John Howard Association of Illinois
—Kolbe House Jail Ministry
—Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC)
Access Living
AirGo
Apparatus Projects
Association for Individual Development
Believers Bailout
Black and Pink Chicago
Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI)
Cabrini Green Legal Aid
Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR)
Chicago Community Bond Fund
Chicago Urban League
Chicago Votes
Circles and Ciphers
Clergy for a New Drug Policy
Coalition Legal, LLC
Coalition to Reduce Recidivism
Community Justice for Youth Institute
Community Renewal Society
Deep Time Chicago
Equity and Transformation (EAT)
Education Justice Project
Firebird Community Arts
FirstFollowers Reentry Program
Hooligan Magazine
Housing Action Illinois
Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (H.O.M.E.)
Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prisons (IL-CHEP)
Illinois Prison Project
Illinois CURE
Illinois Voices
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA)
League of Women Voters of Illinois
Legal Council for Health Justice
LetUsBreathe Collective
Love & Protect
Metropolitan Planning Council
National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated (NAEFI)
Northwestern University Community for Human Rights
ONE Northside
Parole Illinois
Policing in Chicago Research Group
Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation
Restore Justice Illinois
Safer Foundation
Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Smart Decarceration Project
Stateville Speaks
Supportive Housing Providers Association
Target Area Development Corp.
Thedford Garber Law
Transforming Reentry Services/MWIPM
Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare
Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois
University of Illinois at Chicago MFA Class of 2021
UIC John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center
INDIVIDUALS
Individuals are signing in their individual capacity, not on behalf of their organization or institution, which is listed for identification purposes only.
Marshan Allen, Research & Policy Fellow, Fair and Just Prosecution
Ross E. Allen, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Caroline E. Bourland, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Amy P. Campanelli, The Public Defender of Cook County
Sean Collins-Stapleton, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Elizabeth M. Crotty, Assistant Appellate Defender, 5th District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Rev. Dr. Thomas S. Dickelman, Founder & Minister, The Community Church
Eve L. Ewing, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration
Mark Fisher, Assistant Deputy Defender, 3rd District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Christopher L. Gehrke, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Catherine K. Hart, Deputy Defender, 4th District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Emily Hartman, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Alice Kim, Director of Human Rights Practice, University of Chicago, Pozen Center Human Rights Lab
Scott Main, Staff Attorney, Juvenile Defender Resource Center
Roxanna A. Mason, Assistant Appellate Defender, 4th District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Rachel Moran, Assistant Professor, University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minnesota, and former Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Richard Connor Morley, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Deborah Nall, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
Meghan J. Paulas, Senior Director of Chapters, American Constitution Society
Elena B. Penick, Assistant Appellate Defender, 2nd District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
E. King Poor, Partner, Quarles & Brady LLP, and frequent court-appointed appellate counsel
Stephanie T. Puente, Assistant Appellate Defender, 1st District, Office of the State Appellate Defender
ORGANIZATIONS OUTSIDE ILLINOIS
A Blade of Grass
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
The Center for Artistic Activism
Colorado CURE
Crucible 21 Ministries
International CURE
National Center for Reason and Justice
Nebraskans Unafraid
Texas Voices
Twin Cities Nonviolent Movement
Virginia CURE
VOTE-NOLA (Voice of the Experienced)
REPORT WITH FOOTNOTES FOR DOWNLOAD
Residency Restrictions Report With Footnotes-updated July 22, 2020
Residency Restrictions Impact Map-Chicago 400 Alliance
OTHER CHICAGO 400 ALLIANCE DOCUMENTS
PERMENANT FEDERAL INJUNCTION: How will Illinois comply?
Murphy v Raoul Permanent Injunction Order-Illinois-March 2020