Advocacy

Bills to watch

These bills will be before the IL legislative body for the 2018 season. Please follow the bills by the clickable titles and contact your legislators through http://www.ilga.gov/

PASS :: SB3388 Expand Alternatives to Incarceration!
SB3388 expands eligibility for Adult Redeploy Illinois to all probation-eligible individuals, not just those charged with so-called “nonviolent” offenses. This bill will help decrease the reliance on incarceration and decrease overcrowding in IL prisons

PASS :: HB5104 End Medical Fees for Prisoners!
HB5104 eliminates the dangerous and costly barriers created by fees assessed to prisoners for medical care. Additionally, this bill restricts the profit prisons are allowed to make off of commissary items, like toothpaste and underwear, that prisoners are forced to purchase.

PASS :: HB5334 Background Fairness Act!
HB5334 requires that there must be a direct relationship between job duties and conviction history in order to deny an individual employment based on their previous convictions. This bill also provides people with the ability to sue companies who violate the law.

OPPOSE :: SB1980 Will Increase Pretrial Incarceration
SB1980, pushed by Sheriff Dart, is an ineffective bail reform effort and will simply expand the power of sheriff’s and courts to keep people incarcerated.

The Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois encourages congregations and UUs across the state to get involved in policy work to alleviate some of the harm the criminal legal system inflicts.
We are organizing Illinois Unitarian Universalist congregations to advocate for policy changes in Illinois related to prisons. This includes; setting strict limits on the use of solitary confinement, reforming bail/bond system, ensuring people being released from prison be issued state ID and allowing returning citizens access to more job opportunities.

​UUPMI is joined at times by UUANI – Unitarian Universalist Advocacy of Illinois a much broader advocacy group than UUPMI. UUANI brings together UUs across Illinois to work for justice, beloved community, and a healthy planet. The Unitarian Universalist Churches are based on 7 principles.
UU communities are inclusive, you can bring your whole self: your full identity, your questioning mind, your expansive heart.
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Together, we create a force more powerful than one person or one belief system. As Unitarian Universalists, we do not have to check our personal background and beliefs at the door: we join together on a journey that honors everywhere we’ve been before.

Last session

(From our partners UUANI)
Several other important bills we advocated for were signed into law this legislative session in Illinois:
  • HB2373 Expanding Eligibility for Sealing of felony records.


  • HB 3817 Juvenile Expungement protecting youth in the juvenile justice system with timely expungement of their records
Other issues we advocated at the state level for did not do as well:
  • HB3421 Abolishing Cash Bond in Illinois stalled in committee, though Cook County Chief Judge Evans ordered judges to set monetary bonds only in amounts that people can pay.
  • HB 3142 Expanding Access to Higher Education for citizens returning from incarceration passed the House but stalled in the Senate.
  • HB259 Limiting Solitary Confinement passed out of committee but was not brought to the floor for a vote.
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