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“Home for Good is smart, sensible policy that also happens to be
the right thing to do,” Johnson told The Center Square.
House Bill 624 would take an initial amount up to $35 million
from the state budget for reentry services, civil legal aid and
economic development.
Citing data from the Illinois Sentencing Policy Council, Johnson
said each event of recidivism costs taxpayers nearly $200,000
when adjusted for inflation.
“Annually, that adds up to roughly $1.1 billion. That’s in
addition to the more than $2 billion the state spends each year
to fund the Illinois Department of Corrections, and so Home for
Good will help reduce those costs over time,” Johnson said.
Last spring, opponents expressed concern about spending taxpayer
dollars on people with criminal histories.
The Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois
Housing Development Authority filed witness slips in opposition
to the bill, but Johnson said it’s her understanding that the
agencies no longer have the same concerns about budget
constraints they had last spring.
A coalition of groups supporting the legislation said 15,000
people exit Illinois prisons each year, with the vast majority
unable to find stable housing.
“Secure housing empowers people to work and earn wages and so
growing the state sales tax base without raising taxes,” Johnson
said.
The Buffalo Grove Democrat said the bill would create the Home
for Good Institute to train and assist community-based
organizations interested in developing and operating reentry
housing.
“This legislation endeavors to develop more re-entry housing
units, which is going to expand economic development
opportunities for developers and communities most impacted by
high incarceration,” Johnson said.
Fall veto session is scheduled from Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3.
Sean Reed contributed to this story.
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