SEX ON THE MIND
Anti-molester bills proliferate as critics complain of double punishment

Proposals to crack down on child molesters are popular this spring. Most would tighten current law requiring sex offenders to register with the state after they're released. But civil rights advocates worry that politicians are playing to the public's fears and will end up tipping the scales of justice. Exhibit one is a proposal to keep sex offenders behind bars if prosecutors can prove they are still dangerous. Under the plan, a rapist or child molester could receive "civil commitment" to a mental institution after serving a prison term.

Critics believe that constitutes a second sentence for the same crime, a violation of the offender's rights. Such laws would allow commitment of individuals who are not mentally ill, says Mary Dixon of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The freedom that we all have from civil commitment is a fundamental liberty."

But some lawmakers disagree. "It's always a balancing act between the rights of an individual and the rights of society," says Sen. Christine Radogno, a LaGrange Republican. Radogno is sponsoring one of two measures to establish the commitment option. She says community safety is at stake. "We need to keep them separate from society."

Several states, including Washington and Kansas, already have civil commitment statutes for sex offenders. However, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule on the constitutionality of the Kansas law in Hendricks v. Kansas. Convicted sex offender Leroy Hendricks argues that civil confinement to a mental institution would violate his constitutional protection against double jeopardy.

Illinois supporters of civil confinement argue that commitment to a mental institution constitutes treatment, not punishment. Radogno adds that such laws will protect communities from sex offenders, many of whom tend to repeat their crimes.

She calls her bill a "work in progress," but adds she'll see that it passes constitutional muster. Registered child sex offenders in Illinois

Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Dart isn't waiting. He introduced a civil commitment bill that closely mirrors the Kansas statute. The Chicago Democrat says he's confident the Supreme Court will uphold the Kansas law. Under Dart's measure, sex offenders who are committed to a mental institution would have to be evaluated annually, with the results reported to the court. "This would give them the incentive to get help," he says. The measure was approved by the House.

Northwestern University law professor Paul Robinson agrees treatment and release provisions overcome arguments against civil commitment. "It's hard for me to see what is so magical that it deserves constitutional status," he says. "The key here is that the person is dangerous." But Robinson doesn't share Dart's optimism about the Supreme Court's ruling. He cites the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case, Foucha v. Louisiana. The court held then that commitment of an individual who is not mentally ill is unconstitutional. "If I were a betting man, I'd bet that they'd come out the same way," Robinson says.

Dart also wants to broaden public access by placing the sex offender registry on the Internet. But he and Radogno aren't the only ones with sex offender bills in the mix. Others would include more crimes as sex

8 / May 1997 Illinois Issues

Daniel Polsby, a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law, to Tim Novak of the Chicago Sun-Times on the legislative move to begin impeachment proceedings against state Supreme Court Chief Justice James D. Heiple.

OF NOTE

Up in smokes: Inmates
turn a profit on cigarettes

While the state battles the tobacco giants in court, Illinois prisoners are rolling their own.

In fact, making smokes has long been a staple of Illinois' inmate work program. "Prisoners have been making cigarettes for at least 30 years," says corrections spokesman Nic Howell. Manufactured at the Menard Correctional facility, they're sold at state prisons — and sometimes to law enforcement officials — for about 35 cents a pack. Correctional Industries chief Ron Parish says they're the same quality as the store-bought variety — minus any chemical additives.

"All we put in is the ground-up tobacco," says Parish.

For the prison industries, which have been running in the red, giving inmates jobs making cigarettes turns out to be more than smoke and mir- rors. It's profitable. In fiscal year 1996, the cigarette sales netted $152, 845.
Frank Vinluan

Anti-molester bills
offenses, establish tougher penalties for offenders who either fail to register or register with false information and expand community notification.

Sex offenders must register every year for 10 years following prison release. The state police maintain registration records and provide that information to other law enforcement agencies. In turn, the local police are required to give the registry to schools and child care agencies and make it available to anyone else who wants to see it.

Meanwhile, Illinois' law could undergo some modifications to bring it into compliance with new federal requirements. A potential change could require the state police to mail verification letters to sex offenders in order to confirm the name and address on the registry.

Federal and state governments are clearly giving more attention to the way society handles sex offenders. The threat of sex crimes, says Radogno, "strikes fear in parents' hearts."
Frank Vinluan

REPORT CARD
An update on school finance reform

Here's the assignment:
Find a politically safe plan that 177 legislators and one governor will agree on to close the disparity in funding between rich and poor school districts.

Extra credit: Find at least a billion dollars for our crumbling schools.

Legislators assigned themselves school funding reform this session as their "top priority." With less than a month left before adjournment, there are plenty of proposals, but nothing concrete.

Gov. Jim Edgar wants to increase the state income tax and provide property tax relief. He's flown around the state and hit the airwaves to tell us about it. Still, he hasn't presented a specific plan.

No one has. Plenty of options are still on the table:
• a proposal to allow schools to impose a local income tax by referendum.
• proposals to reimpose taxes, including sales taxes on food and nonprescription drugs. And a new tax on junk food only.
• a proposal to increase gambling taxes and funnel that money toward school construction.
• a proposal to reduce the education portion of property tax bills by one-third. The plan would generate about $1.2 billion in property tax relief statewide for homeowners and farmers. Businesses would see no change.

That last proposal was the one a bipartisan school funding committee was "leaning toward" at press time, said Mark Boozell, Edgar's education reform point man.

"Within the next couple of weeks we hope to come as close to a consensus as we can and present that to the leaders. It won't be as detailed as some people expect."

The legislative session is scheduled to adjourn May 23. Any plan approved after May 31 would require a three-fifths vote if it is to be implemented by fall.

They'd better cram.

Jennifer Davis

Illinois Issues May 1997 ¦ 9

BRIEFLY

PRESSBOX
Poor people may get say on utility reform;
failing grades for U.S. education agency

Cram's Chicago Business
reports there may be some unlikely winners in the battle to deregulate the utility industry. In the magazine's April 7 issue, Greg Hinz writes that the match between the power giants is so close, low-income advocates are in a rare position of influence.

"As a result," Heinz writes, "top players on all sides of the contentious battle are supporting efforts to include some form of subsidy to help poor people pay their [utility] bills."

The question is how much and who will pay. Heinz reports that proposed subsidies could amount to $200 million per year or more, and that the dollars could come from the utility companies or more affluent customers.

The poor already receive assistance through the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which is administered by the state. However, federal support has been declining. Last year, not everyone who was eligible received assistance.

Heinz notes that "no deregulation bill is likely to pass the General Assembly without backing from Chicago lawmakers, many of whom represent heavily poor, minority districts." Thus, utility companies are discussing alternative sources of funding for subsidies. And 1 million low-income Illinoisans could come out winners.

The Washington Monthly
argues that the Right may be right about the failures of the federal school bureaucracy. Congressional conservatives made a serious move a couple of years back to shutter the U.S. Department of Education. They retreated only after pollsters discovered the effort was costing Republicans votes in the '96 election, particularly among women concerned about the quality of the nation's schools.

But Greig M. O'Brien and Charles Peters are betting the abolitionists will be back.

The DOE was established in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, in part to satisfy a campaign promise to the National Education Association. But O'Brien and Peters believe we didn't need an agency to tell us what ails public schools: cronyism in local administrations, incompetence in classrooms and politics in teacher training institutes.

Conservatives have always argued the department wastes taxpayers' money. But O'Brien and Peters concentrate their fire on the politics of special interests, which they identify as the "glaring reason" why the department ignores the problems that plague schools. "DOE officials often have ties to (or come from the ranks of) the 'constituents' they advise: the teacher unions, researchers, administrators, college presidents and lobbyists. The department often tailors its actions to address the narrow interests of these 'constituents,' regardless of whether such actions best serve students, their parents, or the national interest in a better-educated populace."

The writers charge the DOE with giving a pass to teachers who can't teach. Further, they argue that the department needs to stand up to college presidents who fight creative education initiatives; to intervene before public schools are bled dry by inept and unneeded administrators; and to step in before school buildings fall to the ground.

Meanwhile, according to O'Brien and Peters, liberals are downplaying the problems at the agency. But they do so at their peril.

"By failing to face the department's failures, liberals hurt the cause of reform, and provide fuel for abolitionists, who are waiting for the political winds to shift again to relaunch their attack."

Peggy Boyer Long

10 ¦ May 1997 Illinois Issues

BALDIE'S BACK!
Survey finds jump in number of eagles

Renewed conservation efforts have the population of the once- endangered bald eagle soaring 42 percent higher than last year.

In a survey by the Department of Natural Resources, 2, 459 eagles were spotted compared to 1, 733 in 1996. The Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey has tracked the population annually since 1979. Most of the eagles surveyed in Illinois were seen along the Mississippi River. Other sightings occurred along the Illinois River.

According to Sue Lauzon, executive director of the Endangered Species Protection Board, the high numbers may be due to the popularity of Illinois as a wintering site. She says she's fairly certain the numbers reflect a national trend. Long-term statistics show the number of eagles in Illinois to be increasing at about 17 percent annually, doubling every five years.

The bald eagle is currently listed as a federally threatened and state endangered species. But their numbers have increased since the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972.

Frank Vinluan

Illustration by Olin Harris.

TIP FOR TAT
Can we fix the slate's tax increment financing laws?

Just about everybody admits some municipalities abuse the state's tax increment financing laws. But reform won't be easy. That's because there are competing interests in the multi-million dollar TIF industry, including developers and bondsmen, and because municipalities warn that TIFs have become the state's only economic development tool.

In fact, about 230 Illinois municipalities have TIF districts, which have been available in Illinois since 1977.

The original purpose was to allow communities to redevelop blighted areas.

When a municipality designates an area as a TIF district, the real estate tax base is frozen, protecting the developer from property tax increases for many years. This break is designed to give developers an incentive to locate new businesses in the district. TIF designations were intended only for redevelopment that would not have occurred otherwise.

But over the years, problems, called abuses by some, have made TIFs controversial:
• Municipalities have defined "blighted" areas loosely.
• Some municipalities have established TIF districts in areas where motels, restaurants and retail outlets probably would have been built anyway. Some have even been accused of designating TIFs to lure retailers from nearby towns.
• TIFs limit the tax revenue available to other taxing bodies, most notably school districts.
• There is little oversight of TIF districts, and no recourse to challenge designations beyond taking municipalities to court.

A final problem, which has attracted considerable attention in the General Assembly this spring, is that designation of some TIF districts, especially in the Chicago suburbs, can force low-income people out of affordable housing.

Don Eslick of the Illinois Tax Increment Association tells Illinois Issues the association is negotiating with housing advocates to provide relocation assistance to people when a new TIF district would eliminate 10 or more housing units. Other legislative proposals would lighten the definition of blighted areas.

Eslick expects some TIF reform to pass this year.

Sen. Christine Radogno, chairwoman of a new subcommittee on TIFs, says she hopes to negotiate agreement on some reforms over the summer.

Ed Wojcicki

Illinois Issues May 1997 ¦ 11

BRIEFLY

Shedd Aquarium sponsors expedition to study endangered iguana

Eco-tourists will join staff of Chicago's Shedd Aquarium in late May to help study iguanas in the Exuma Island chain.

"The work that participants perform on the trip will be crucial to our research," says Chuck Knapp, senior aquarist at the Shedd and leader of the expedition. The iguanas studied remain unharmed and in their habitat during the research.

Data gathered by trip participants will become part of a Texas A&M University research project in which scientists are studying iguana genetics. Researchers believe habitat loss, overhunting and loss of eggs and young to predators have contributed to the decline of the iguana population in the Caribbean. The expedition will attempt to collect enough information to determine how many iguanas are left and what is happening to them. Researchers believe there are about 1, 000 to 1, 200 Exuma Island rock iguanas left in the wild.

The blue-headed rock iguana

That iguana is a close cousin to the iguana now on display at the Shedd.

The blue-headed rock iguana is critically endangered with only about 50 animals left in the wild. Shedd's exhibit is part of an American Zoo and Aquarium Association Species Survival Plan, which is a cooperative program among North American zoos and aquariums and other international organizations to save threatened animals and their habitats from extinction.

Beverley Scobell

OOKSHELF

Disposable Children:
America's child welfare system
by Penny Golden

Who can forget the "Keystone 19"? Those were the Melton kids found living in a house on Chicago's Keystone Avenue under conditions President Bill Clinton compared to Calcutta. Or little Joey Wallace? He was the 18-month- old returned to his mother by a judge on the counsel of an Illinois child welfare worker. Joey's mother then hanged him with an electrical cord. These are the stories, after all, that make national news. And stick with us.

But for Renny Golden, the subtext is about blaming the "unworthy poor." Her interest is the connection between child abuse and abandonment and poverty. She assesses the conflict between child welfare policy and practice. While the policy is family preservation, she believes the practice is child removal. In the past decade the practice of removing children from their homes has only accelerated. Golden quotes attorney Ben Wolf: "After Joey Wallace and Keystone, no kid went home." Wolf, remember, was the attorney who represented the American Civil Liberties Union and won a consent decree against the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for mishandling the children in its care.

In fact. Golden chose to focus on Illinois for three reasons: because she lives in Cook County; because she has conducted sociological fieldwork among low-income and minority residents of Chicago's West Side for many years; and because "DCFS is one of the most dysfunctional, overwhelmed, and publicly pilloried of state child welfare systems."

Golden's book, including a foreward by Jonathan Kozol, is bound to rouse some critics. It's part of a series on contemporary issues in crime and justice put out by The Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Peggy Boyer Long

12 ¦ May 1997 Illinois Issues

WEB SITE OF THE MONTH
Plan ahead— few potholes delay your cyber journey

Spring is here, and with it a plethora of potholes to greet Illinois drivers. But you need not fret about your car bouncing along the freeway. Take a detour on a different road — the information superhighway.

The Chicago area Metropolitan Planning Council's "Regional Connection" at http: //www.metroplanning.org offers findings on infrastructure problems and many other issues concerning urban growth. The council plans to work with lawmakers to make transportation issues a legislative priority. Another goal is to secure more federal dollars for Chicago and suburban road projects. The site itself is designed to address development policies and proposals facing the Chicago metropolitan area. It contains information about such topics as housing, taxation and education.

Among the issues highlighted are tax increment finance districts and regionalism. Education funding reform gets the spotlight in ''Reform '97," a public- private partnership of leaders from business, education and civic communities. The project was formed to study statewide tax reform, especially as it relates to education.

While "Regional Connection" is Chicago-oriented, cybersurfers can try their hands at the many links to related sites about regionalism and planning, housing, education, taxation, transportation and politics.

Among the sites worth visiting: The National Council for Urban Economic Development, or CUED as they refer to themselves, at http: //www.cued.- org/cued/indcx.html. The site provides perspectives from both the public and private sectors on urban development. Especially noteworthy is the "Main Street" section, which provides a glimpse of CUED's resources with an illustration of what could be Anytown, USA. Topics are represented by buildings on the street. Users browse CUED's offerings simply by navigating the town.

Finally, those stuck in a rut can get a move on by hooking up with one of the world's largest transportation libraries. Northwestern University offers transit information for air, rail and water, as well as highways and byways, at http: //www.library.nwu.edu/- transportation.

Slow down to stop by Those pot- holes are going to be around for a long time.
Frank Vinluan

Correction
The Illinois State Museum's "At Home in the Heartland Online" can he found at http: //www.museum. state.il.us/exhibits/athome/index.html. We listed the address incorrectly in our February issue (see page 11).

Illinois Issues May 1997 ¦ 13

SHOP TILL YOU DROP

Campaign reform proposals gather dust, while elected officials gather bucks

A candidate's campaign finance information is public record. The State Board of Elections keeps these records in Springfield and Chicago.

People who want to look at the records must fill out a form known as a D-3, listing their names, addresses, phone numbers, occupations, employers and reason for examining the reports. Candidates must also fill out a form: a D-2. However, contributors listed on the D-2 aren't required to give their occupations or employers.

Several proposals have been floated in the General Assembly to change both forms. Evanston Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, for example, would require contributors of more than $ 150 to list their occupations and employers. Sen. Marty Butler, a Park Ridge Republican, would eliminate the D-3.

This D-2 belongs to Aurora Republican Sen. Chris Lauzen. He introduced one of the more comprehensive campaign reform proposals this legislative session. Among its provisions: limits on contributions and creation of a campaign finance oversight panel. The plan failed to get out of committee. Another package of House ethics bills, backed by Speaker Michael Madigan, did advance to the Senate. The package would eliminate D-3s and prohibit personal use of campaign funds. Nevertheless, of the approximately 60 bills that relate to campaign finance reform, few have advanced to the floor of either chamber.

The party leaders in the General Assembly are major contributors to legislative candidates. For example, unsuccessful state Senate candidate Barb Brown of Chester received funds from that chamber's Democratic leader, Emil Jones Jr. The Illinois Campaign Finance Task Force, in a project sponsored by Illinois Issues, proposed limiting transfers from leaders" political action committees to candidates.

Illinois is one of the few states without limits on campaign contributions. Rep. Mike Boland, an East Moline Democrat, would introduce some limits. Under his proposal, vendors who have done business with the state within the four years preceding the election could not give more than $1, 500 to a campaign. The proposal also would apply to those seeking to do business with the state. Crete Democratic Sen. Debbie Halvorson

Illinois Issues May 1997 ¦ 14

This is a portion of former Chicago Democratic Sen. Frank Savickas' campaign spending report for the first half of 1992.

would limit contributions to $1, 000 from an individual and $5, 000 from a political action committee in the primary and general election, the current limits on contributions to federal campaigns. Further, Sen. Steven Rauschenberger, an Elgin Republican, would tighten deadlines and penalize a committee that fails to report within two days a contribution of $500 or more in the 30 days before an election.

Illinois has no limits on campaign spending either. East Moline Democratic Sen. Denny Jacobs would limit expenditures of candidates for the state) Snate to $100, 000 per primary and $200,000 per general election. The limits for House races would be half that amount.

There also are no prohibitions against candiadates putting campaign contributions to personal use. Such expenses have included the purchase of expensive homes and cars. For example, former Sen. Frank Savickas, a Chicago Democrat, used $18, 875 from his campaign fund to buy a Cadillac. Rep. Lauren Beth Gash, a Highland Park Democrat, would prohibit such spending.

Frank Vinluan

Illinois Issues May 1997 ¦ 15