Should Prisoners Pay For Their Time Behind Bars?

SPRINGFIELD, IL - A bill that would prevent the Illinois Department of Corrections from suing current and former inmates to recoup the cost of their prison stay passed through the Illinois Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2465, sponsored by State Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston passed with a 32-19 tally and will now be considered by the state’s House of Representatives.

Biss called the current practice of prisons suing those incarcerated “dangerous.”

“This is a dangerous practice that can make it almost impossible for people who have paid their debt to society be able to get back on their feet, find housing and seek employment,” he said.

The current practice, which has been legal since 1982, has seen a sharp uptick of instances recently. Two such lawsuits were made in both 2012 and 2013 and 13 were filed in 2015 alone.

Most of those suits were filed against former inmates who were either poor or part of a civil suit against the state, according to Biss.

“It’s not as though most of them are millionaires,” Biss said. “We’re talking mainly about people with relatively modest inheritances or court settlements that the state is going after.”