SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — In January, a new law gave people who are sentenced while 20 or younger the opportunity to be eligible for parole review. While this law helps people sentenced in 2023 or later, it does not provide parole opportunities for anyone sentenced before 2019.
Restore Justice Illinois helped push HB1064, now Public Act 102-1128, through the house. They are now championing Senate Bill 2073 in the state legislature.
"There is a generation of people who had very limited to no opportunities for release outside of executive clemency from the governor," said Lindsey Hammond, the Policy Director for Restore Justice. "Many of these people have no other hope or possibility to come home."
Restore Justice has several employees who were formerly incarcerated. One is Nelson Morris, who served 29 years in prison and was released in August 2020.
He was convicted when he was only 17 and says others of the same age shouldn't have to face life in prison without the opportunity for a second chance.
"We will not allow a child to buy a car before 18, or be out past curfew, or join the military, or get an apartment, or so on so forth, because they're not mentally capable and responsible enough to make these decisions," said Morris.
Morris said when he went to prison, he didn't even know how to read. The men he was with in prison taught him how to shave and develop his moral compass.
"It helped make me who I am and this is one of the reasons why I try to reach back and help guys because I know everybody's not monsters," said Morris. "I know guys made wrong choices."
In his job at Restore Justice, Morris talks to legislators to lobby for parole bills. He says having an actual person you know tell you their story takes the impact of these sentences to another level.
"If a child is 15, 16, 17, or 18, and they do a heinous act, we don't take away from the act" said Morris. "Yes, its heinous. But what about that child 20 years from now? Is he still gonna be that person? That child hasn't even gotten a chance to form and become who they are. "
Senate Bill 2073 was filed on February 9, 2023 and is scheduled for its second reading on March 21, 2023. If passed, the bill would take effect on July 1, 2024.
To read the bill in full, click here.
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