Source: mystateline.com 3/17/25 SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A new bill proposed in Illinois would reduce the distance convicted sex offenders are required to observe when living near schools. Senate Bill 2254, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (D-Chicago), would reduce the distance sex offenders are required to stay from schools and playgrounds from 500 feet to 250 feet. Read the full article [Action alert for Illinois registrants and supporters: Call, write, and show up as soon as possible to support this bill to increase housing choices for registrants]
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IL: Illinois Senate democrats push bill to ease residency rules for sex offenders
Source: prairiestatewire.com 3/14/25 Illinois Democratic state senators have proposed legislation that would reduce residency restrictions for registered child sex offenders, lowering the required distance they must maintain from schools and childcare facilities. Introduced by Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford and co-sponsored by Sens. Adriane Johnson and Mary Edly-Allen, Senate Bill 2254 seeks to amend the Criminal Code of 2012 and the state’s sex offender registration laws. Under the proposed changes, the restricted zone around schools and childcare institutions would shrink from 500 feet to 250 feet. Additionally, the bill removes day care homes…
Read MoreIL: How do scores of Chicagoans arrested for sex crimes stay off the sex offender registry once convicted?
Source: nbcchicago.com 10/22/24 When John heard the news on a recent Friday, it hit him hard: Elliott ____, a former Chicago public schoolteacher and John’s former colleague, had been arrested and charged with three counts of child exploitation, after allegedly exposing himself to three girls – ages 10, 9, and 7. Eight years ago, John – who does not want to be identified by his real name – was one of more than two dozen victims recorded by Elliott after he hid a motion-activated camera in an employee bathroom at…
Read MoreIL: New Illinois law clarifies rules on AI-generated child pornography
Source: myjournalcourier.com 8/13/24 Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed into law legislation clarifying that Illinois’ existing child pornography laws apply to images and videos created using artificial intelligence technology. “I initiated this legislation because AI-generated child sexual abuse images are an increasing concern that need to be addressed before technology outpaces our ability to distinguish between AI images and images of real children,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in announcing the signing. State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz and Sen. Mary Edly-Allen sponsored House Bill 4623, which prohibits using artificial intelligence to create…
Read MoreJudge Tosses Biometric Data Suit Against X
Source: reason.com 6/19/24 X’s child porn detection system doesn’t violate an Illinois biometric privacy law, the judge ruled. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit concerning the software X (formerly Twitter) uses to find illegal porn images. The suit was brought by Mark Martell, who objected to X using Microsoft’s PhotoDNA software. Martell argued that PhotoDNA—which is used across the tech industry to detect and report child porn—required the collection of biometric data and that this collection violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). A win for Martell could have imperiled…
Read MoreIL: DOC can’t outright ban parents convicted of sex offenses from speaking on the phone to their children while they are on supervised release
Source: courthousenews.com 4/19/24 CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit ruled that the Illinois Department of Corrections may not outright ban parents convicted of sex offenses from speaking on the phone to their children while they are on supervised release. The government may implement call monitoring to minimize the risk of abuse as an alternative to the ban. Read the full ruling (click on “Read the ruling here”)
Read MoreIL: Illinois Supreme Court Upholds Law Limiting Where Child Sex Offenders Can Live
Source: wttw.com 4/6/24 SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that a state law restricting where previously convicted child sex offenders can live is constitutional, although it left open the possibility that it was improperly applied to one individual. In a 6-0 decision, the court found the residency restriction “does not infringe upon a child sex offender’s fundamental rights” and that there was a “rational basis” for the state to restrict where a person convicted of such a crime can live. “The legislature has a legitimate interest in protecting…
Read MoreIL: Ex-Chicago police officer is sentenced to a year in prison for forcing woman to perform sex act in squad car
Source: currently.att.yahoo.com 2/27/24 A former Chicago police officer who forced a woman to engage in a sex act in his squad car in 2019 was sentenced to a year in federal prison, prosecutors said Monday. James Sajdak, 65, pleaded guilty in November to one count of deprivation of civil rights, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement. He was sentenced Friday to the maximum allowed for the misdemeanor charge. On March 5, 2019, Sajdak flashed the lights of his police vehicle at…
Read MoreWI: Illinois judge who reversed rape conviction removed from bench after panel finds he circumvented law
Source: yahoo.com 2/24/24 CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois judge who sparked outrage by reversing a man’s rape conviction involving a 16-year-old girl has been removed from the bench after a judicial oversight body found he circumvented the law and engaged in misconduct. The Illinois Courts Commission removed Adams County Judge Robert Adrian from the bench Friday after it held a three-day hearing in Chicago in November on a compliant filed against Adrian. Its decision says Adrian “engaged in multiple instances of misconduct” and “abused his position of power to indulge…
Read MoreIL: SIU researcher’s team advocates for new assessment, treatment approach for juvenile sex offenders
Source: news.siu.edu 7/6/23 CARBONDALE, Ill. — Tamara Kang, assistant professor in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, and her colleagues have created a new research-based assessment for juvenile sex offenders, which they say is more accurate, effective and beneficial for the young offenders and society as a whole than current systems. And since 95-97% of juveniles won’t reoffend, the team recommends treatment over incarceration. “A lot of times the public views juveniles with sex offenses as really dangerous, but the vast majority of them aren’t different…
Read MoreIL: Seventh Circuit Slams Illinois Civil Commitment Program but Reverses Injunction
Source: prisonlegalnews.org 1/1/24 “Very weighty interests are at stake when a state institutes a program of civil commitment for sex offenders who, though never tried for or convicted of a crime, are found too dangerous for release.” So began a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on July 24, 2023, in a challenge to a lower court’s order mandating improvements in Illinois’ civil commitment program, operated under the state’s Sexually Dangerous Persons (SDP) Act. Unfortunately, those interests were not deemed weighty enough to convince the…
Read MoreIL: How Illinois Housing Banishment Laws Push People into Homelessness and Prison
Source: boltsmag.org 1/16/24 Organizers with past sex offense convictions are championing a bill in the state legislature that could end the cycle and roll back residency restrictions. James Orr was in his apartment in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side one Wednesday morning in 2013 when he heard his phone buzz. “James, you have 30 days to move,” an Illinois state police officer on the other end told him. The 62-year-old, who had moved into the apartment with his wife in 2006 after finishing a three-year prison sentence, was…
Read MoreIL: Sex offenders on probation challenge Illinois policy on contact with children
Source: courthousenews.com 12/7/23 The parolees complain they have to wait months or more before a therapist deems them fit to see their own children — and can’t even speak to them by phone before then. CHICAGO (CN) — Sex offenders on supervised release argued before a Seventh Circuit panel Thursday that Illinois’ policy limiting when they can see their children is unconstitutional and should be overturned. The parolees filed a class action against the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2018 over a policy that forbade sex offenders from contacting their…
Read MoreIL: Illinois Supreme Court Weighs Constitutionality of Lifetime Restrictions on Child Sex Offenders
Source: news.wttw.com 11/15/23 SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court is weighing whether it is constitutional to impose lifetime restrictions on where a person can live after they’ve been convicted of a sex crime involving a minor. “It’s been 21 years – almost 21 years since my conviction,” Martin Kopf told the court’s seven justices on Wednesday. “I have been totally offense-free. Not even a moving violation. But yet, they still say that I’m dangerous.” … In court challenges, Kopf has represented himself while arguing, among other things, that the law…
Read MoreIL: Disabled Man on Sex Offense Registry Pardoned by Illinois Governor
Source: news.yahoo.com 11/16/23 In 2012, when Adam Nesteikis was 25 years old, his friend told him to pull down his pants in front of a young girl. Adam did exactly that. Adam is intellectually disabled, which means he didn’t realize he had done something wrong. He also didn’t understand what it meant when, after a trial, he was placed on the sex offense registry. He just knew that for some reason, he lost the job he loved wiping tables. He could no longer participate in the Special Olympics. And he…
Read MoreIL: State Supreme Court weighs constitutionality of lifetime restrictions on child sex offenders
Source: ipmnewsroom.org 11/15/23 SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court is weighing whether it is constitutional to impose lifetime restrictions on where a person can live after they’ve been convicted of a sex crime involving a minor. “It’s been 21 years – almost 21 years since my conviction,” Martin Kopf told the court’s seven justices on Wednesday. “I have been totally offense-free. Not even a moving violation. But yet, they still say that I’m dangerous.” Kopf, now 54, pleaded guilty in 2003 to aggravated criminal sexual abuse for an incident involving…
Read MoreAction Alert for Illinois: Take action now to reduce and repeal registries, decriminalize housing, and let people live in available homes
Source: Illinois Voices for Reform and Chicago 400 A message from Adele Nicholas, Executive Director, Illinois Voices for Reform: Illinois residents, please click here to support SB2158 now! Everyone needs a place to live. People who’ve done their time should have the opportunity to establish stable homes for themselves and their families. Illinois’ wasteful and counterproductive registry and residency laws too often prevent people on the registry from building a foundation for a positive future. It’s time to stand up for real change. You can help us get there! Our…
Read MoreIL: Illinois legislator tells prison agency ‘do your job’ on sex offender notification
Source: thecentersquare.com 10/3/23 A Republican state legislator says she has no interest in the idea of changing the state’s sex offender notification system that was the subject of a recent audit finding with the Illinois Department of Corrections. The compliance audit released last week looks at IDOC for two years ending June 30, 2022. In total, there were 46 findings and 40 repeat findings. The findings include a failure to notify victims and local law enforcement after releasing sex offenders, including those who committed a predatory criminal sexual assault of a child,…
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