Truth-in-sentencing costs Illinois thousands of years — and billions of dollars
So-called "truth in sentencing" laws in the late 1990s prohibited people in IL prisons from earning time of their sentences with rehabilitative programming, leaving thousands destined to die in prison while costing the state billions each year to incarcerate an increasingly aging and sick population. Credit for Change would give people a chance to earn time off their sentences and return home as productive members of their communities.