HB1245 Summary

• Creates the Department of Returning Resident Affairs to coordinate comprehensive services for returning residents (individuals detained, prosecuted, incarcerated, or formerly incarcerated in Illinois).

• Establishes the Second Chance State Program administered through 13 hub sites statewide, operated by community-based organizations to provide pretrial services, reentry support, education, job training, housing, and behavioral health services.

• Requires law enforcement, courts, sheriffs, and Department of Corrections to inform returning residents about the Program and refer consenting participants within specified timeframes (within 2 hours of arrest, at first court appearance, before release from detention, and 6 months before release from incarceration).

• Mandates the Director of Returning Resident Affairs must have community-based organization experience and have been incarcerated in an Illinois Department of Corrections facility for at least one year.

• Prohibits the Department and hub sites from contracting with or referencing for-profit correctional entities and establishes privacy protections for Program participant communications; effective immediately upon enactment.