SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - HB 1064 would allow people given life sentences while younger than 21 to petition for parole after serving 40 years of their sentence. 

The bill has bipartisan support, with Rita Mayfield, a Democrat for the 60th district, and Seth Lewis, a Republican for the 45th district co-sponsoring the bill.  The bill has already passed in the House, and is expected to be discussed in the State Senate during this week's lame duck session. 

"This bill before the General Assembly simply provides the opportunity for people to have the consideration for parole after they've served 40 years," said Lindsey Hammond, the Police Director for Restore Justice Illinois, an organization supporting the bill. "HB 1064 does not guarantee that people will be released into the community or that they will automatically come home, it just gives them that opportunity to have that consideration."

If the bill passes, Illinois will be the 26th state to abolish life without parole sentences for those under 21 years old. Hammond says the the science of brain development shows that people convicted when they are minors don't have fully developed brains yet.

"The age, for instance, that people are allowed to vote, to rent a car to buy alcohol, to drink, in these instances, we recognize that young people should be held at a different standard than adults," said Hammond. "The criminal justice system unfortunately has been slow to incorporate those changes. It just makes sense that individuals who are young are given the opportunity for consideration later in their life when their brain and opportunity to develop and mature."

If passed, the bill would not be retroactive. This means it would only impact those sentenced after the bill becomes law. 

"Incarceration and life sentences do not make anybody safer," said Hammond. "It's just a waste of taxpayer money and it's a form of punishment that really serves no value, to make it that extreme, without any opportunity for hope, or redemption, or a mercy. I think that's what our legal system should be about is giving people those opportunities." 

To read the bill, click this link. 

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