Legislation to ease and expand the expungement of juvenile arrest records was announced by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, and state Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Orland Hills. The Youth Opportunity and Fairness Act (HB 3817/SB 2021) would combat unlawful and overly broad sharing of juvenile records in Illinois and bring the state’s current law in line with the ABA’s model guidelines on such records. Data show that Illinois has tracked well below these guidelines. In the past decade, less than three in one thousand — .29 percent — of juvenile records were expunged in Illinois due to procedural hurdles in place preventing expungement petitions from being filed. Half of the state’s counties did not grant a single juvenile expungement in the past decade. Meanwhile research shows that juvenile records place obstacles in the way of vulnerable youth trying to build productive lives, increasing their risk of returning to criminal activity. The bill sponsored by Nekritz and Hastings does two major things:
- It automatically expunges the records of juvenile arrests that do not result in charges. For cases that result in findings of delinquency, it expunges records two years after the youth’s case is closed, but only if the youth does not pick up a new finding of delinquency during that two-year period.
- It strengthens confidentiality rules and establishes a penalty for unlawful sharing of juvenile records (Class B misdemeanor resulting in a $1,000 fine and any actual damages).
