SPRINGFIELD – A new bill sponsored by State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago) would require the Department of Corrections to provide civics education to incarcerated people who will soon be released.

“Jails and prisons are meant to provide rehabilitation, and that means helping re-entry into society,” Peters said. “These folks have already lost their rights while locked up, and so they need to understand these rights so that they can resume being free citizens upon their release.”

House Bill 2541 creates the Re-Entering Citizens Civics Education Act and requires the Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice to provide non-partisan, peer-led civics programs throughout Illinois correctional facilities to incarcerated people who will be released within 12 months. The curriculum of the program will consist of voting rights, governmental institutions, current affairs, and simulations of voter registration, election, and democratic processes, and are purely educational.

Having passed the Senate Criminal Law Committee, the legislation now moves to the full Senate for consideration.

SPRINGFIELD – Further showing his commitment to youth in care, State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago) is sponsoring legislation expanding access to services available to post-placement and post-adoption children.

“I’m a child of adoption, so I have first-hand experience of how important these services are to youth in care,” Peters said. “I want kids who are adopted or placed in foster care to have greater access than I did to the helpful services they require.”

The legislation, House Bill 3587:

• adds mental health treatment, counseling and support services for emotional, behavioral, or developmental needs, and treatment for substance abuse to the definition of “post-placement and post-adoption services.”
• expands the requirements of the Department of Children and Family Services to establish and maintain accessible services.
• requires DCFS to establish and maintain a toll-free number to respond to public requests about the service.
• requires DCFS to properly publicize the new services and the toll-free number.

The bill is an initiative of the Adoption Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. The organization has argued the legislation will better ensure successful adoptions and lower the rate of children being returned to state care.

Having passed the Senate Human Services Committee, the bill now moves to the full Senate for consideration.

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago) voted to approve a proposal to establish a fair tax system in Illinois.

“I’m happy to support a measure that will bring tax relief to 97 percent of Illinois taxpayers,” Peters said. “My Senate colleagues and I followed through on a mandate from the voters, who spoke loudly in November of 2018 and told us they wanted a state government that would do its part to implement a fair tax.”

The legislation, Senate Bill 687, would replace the current flat rate system with a fair, tiered system that imposes a different rate depending on the level of an individual’s income. The majority of Illinois taxpayers will pay fewer taxes as a result.

“From Streeterville to the Indiana border, we need to create an Illinois that works for everyone, not just for the wealthy few,” Peters said. “A Fair Tax is a helpful tool for investing in our community.”

In order to change the income tax structure, the Illinois Constitution would need to be amended, which requires voter approval. Any new Fair Tax laws will only take effect if approved via ballot measure in November of 2020.

SPRINGFIELD – A bill sponsored by State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago) would ban state agencies or units of local government from conducting business with privately owned civil detention centers.

The bill is an initiative of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee rights in response to a March vote by the Board of Trustees in Dwight approving plans to build a 1,200 bed privately owned detention facility. Once built, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency could potentially contract with this facility. The bill would prevent this from happening.

“Privately owned detention centers are run with a profit motive, which creates an incentive for people to become bad actors as a way to cut costs and save money at the expense of living conditions,” Peters said. “These cruel institutions have no place in our modern society.”