Prisoner Review Board reform, changes to police hiring clear General Assembly

SPRINGFIELD — A long-awaited bill to reform the Prisoner Review Board will soon go to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk after receiving approval in the legislature Tuesday.

The House voted 74-37 to approve Senate Bill 19, which contains a series of reforms designed to include victims’ participation in Prisoner Review Board decisions. The measure now needs only a signature from the governor to become law.

The bill would give victims the right to file victim impact statements ahead of hearings, provide them with additional notice when their offender is granted early release, and allow them to seek an order of protection against an offender who is incarcerated.

It would also create the Office of the Director of Victim and Witness Services, which would ensure the board complies with victims’ rights, and mandates the board provide victims with contact information for the State Victim Assistance Hotline.

The bill also extends the terms for PRB members from six to eight years.

“The bulk of this bill is focused on … making sure that victims, survivors, are more engaged in the process at PRB because unfortunately, too often, we’ve heard from victims and family members that they simply haven’t been given a voice in this process,” bill sponsor Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, said.

Reforms pushed by the General Assembly last year failed to advance to the governor’s desk despite nearly unanimous support from the legislature. Pritzker opposed a requirement in the bill that board hearings to be livestreamed, and the bill was never called for a vote in the final days of last year’s session.

Guzzardi said the bill passed Tuesday includes many of the portions lawmakers agreed on last year, but many Republicans have expressed concerns the latest version was too weak compared to the previous version.

Read more: Prisoner Review Board reform bill clears Senate

The reforms come after Crosetti Brand allegedly murdered an 11-year-old Chicago boy in 2024. That February, the board voted to release Brand, finding there was not enough evidence he had violated his conditions of release. His ex-girlfriend, Laterria Smith, was denied an emergency order of protection by a Cook County judge while Brand was imprisoned at Stateville in Crest Hill.

Brand was charged with attacking Smith the day after his release and killing her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins, who attempted to protect his mother. Two PRB members, including the board chair, resigned in the wake of the incident.

Read more: Prisoner Review Board sued for negligence a year after released prisoner killed Chicago boy

Brand’s history of domestic violence against women prompted both advocates and lawmakers to call for stricter review of prisoners’ backgrounds before their release.

Response to Sonya Massey’s death

Another bill needing only the governor’s signature to become law would change hiring practices for law enforcement agencies after it passed through the House on May 15.

Senate Bill 1953 would require all law enforcement agencies in the state to obtain all of the investigations, examinations and records about a potential hire from all entities that previously employed them. Previous employers and law enforcement agencies are required to release the information within two weeks of receiving such a request.

Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, has been pushing for legislation in response to the death of Sonya Massey, a Springfield resident who was shot and killed in her home by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy in July 2024.

The former sheriff’s deputy, Sean Grayson, was originally called to Massey’s home in Springfield about reports of a prowler. After not finding anything outside, Grayson and his partner spoke with Massey inside her home.

The deputies stood in the living room while Massey, with permission, removed a pot of boiling water from the stove in the adjoined kitchen. Massey said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” after comments from deputies about the hot water, then Grayson threatened to shoot her. Body camera video showed Grayson shooting her seconds after the threat as Massey apologized.

Grayson is awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Following Massey’s death, Capitol News Illinois unearthed documents showing Grayson was disciplined at a previous job for disobeying orders from superiors, general aggression and posting about drug busts online. Grayson was also found to have lied about being honorably discharged from the Army.

Read more: Grayson’s behavior in Logan County led superior to ask, ‘How are you still employed with us?’

The measure passed through the House on a vote of 101-12.

“We can’t legislate for judgment,” said the bill’s House sponsor Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, during a news conference last week. “What we can do is make sure that the answer that we got from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department was that they did not know. That will no longer be the case when we pass this bill.”

Turner sponsored another bill in response to Massey’s death that would give Sangamon County residents the power to recall an elected official, like the sheriff. Cook County already has the power to hold recall votes.

Read more: Senate OKs police hiring reform, Sangamon County recall in response to Sonya Massey’s death

Senate Bill 1954 passed through the Senate but hasn’t made its way through a House committee, meaning its passage could be an uphill battle.

“It’s not done for this year,” Buckner said. “We just need to figure out what’s going to happen in these next couple of weeks.”

Tornado-safe warehouses

A mile-wide EF3 tornado tore through St. Louis on Friday afternoon before crossing into Illinois and inflicting more damage in parts of Madison County. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado passed less than a mile from a complex of warehouses where a man was killed when a similar strength tornado demolished an Amazon warehouse in December 2021.

In response to the 2021 tornado, Illinois lawmakers convened a task force to issue recommendations on how to make warehouses safer in a tornado. In response to those recommendations, the House voted 83-28 Tuesday to pass House Bill 2987, which creates a series of new requirements warehouses must follow to protect their employees during a tornado warning.

“It’s very timely that I’m calling this today as I spent part of my Friday and the last three weekends hunkered down in the basement with a tornado coming through my area,” Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, said.

Read more: Task force recommends tornado shelters in warehouses following deadly 2021 storm

The bill now heads to the Senate. It requires warehouse operators to work with local first responder agencies to craft safety plans for severe weather. New warehouses would need to be built with shelter spaces compliant with building codes for tornadoes and other types of natural disasters.

The 2021 tornado hit as the Amazon warehouse was bustling ahead of the holidays. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado traveled through the south half of the building. The tornado first impacted the west-facing wall, causing it to collapse. That caused other structural failures, including the roof to collapse.

An Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into Amazon did not find any violations, according to the task force report. OSHA recommended the company review its severe weather procedures, ensure employees are provided training and participate in drills, have site-specific information about severe weather plans, and ensure audible warning devices are accessible. The warehouse was rebuilt and reopened in September 2024.

Jade Aubrey contributed.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.