2016 is almost over, and that means a bunch of new laws are soon going into effect in Illinois. The list of new laws is extensively long and most of them are pretty trivial in manner, but some of the new statutes have a significant affect on criminal law. Today, we highlight five new criminal laws set to go into place in Illinois on January 1, and we explain how they may affect you.
New Criminal Laws
For an extensive list of all the new bills going into law, you can click here. We narrow the scope to five important criminal laws below.
1. House Bill 5594 – This law states that any defendant who is deemed to need opioid abuse or addiction treatment will be required to participate in a treatment plan under the care of a licensed physician. This is a great law as it ensures we are treating the root cause of the problem in an effort to reduce recidivism.
2. Senate Bill 0210 – This bill bans the sale of “bath salts” and it allows local governments to revoke a retailer’s license if a violation occurs. Cracking down on illicit drug use has been a point of emphasis over the past few years, and this law is no exception.
3. Senate Bill 2343 – SB 2343 limits the polices use of stingray devices to track information from cell phones. The devices can only be used to track the location of the phone, not to listen in to any conversations, and police will need a court order to do so. Additionally, all data collected from non-targets must be deleted with 24 hours. This is a step in the right direction for personal protections, but it still leaves the technology open to potential abuse.
4. Senate Bill 2777 – This law states that minors cannot be committed to Department of Juvenile Justice facilities for committing crimes that are not felonies or for certain non-violent felonies. This is another good bill because it ensures juvenile offenders aren’t overly punished for minor offenses.
5. House Bill 1437 – This final bill requires the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to report the number of people arrested and released without being charged. Included in this information will be the racial and ethnic composition of each individual. This will be a helpful bill because it will ensure minorities are not unfairly targeted by certain departments or officers.