On Good Authority

              – 1 –
Extended jurisdiction
juvenile prosecutions
in Illinois
On Good Authority
Vol. 6, No. 5
December 2002
On Good Authority is a periodic
briefing on trends and issues in
criminal justice research and program
evaluation. This report was written by
staff Research Analyst Timothy Lavery.
It is a summary of an implementation
evaluation of the Juvenile Justice
Reform Provisions of 1998 conducted
by the Authority for the Illinois
Juvenile Justice Commission. Copies
of the evaluation are available from
the Authority’s Research and Analysis
Unit.
The Illinois Criminal Justice
Information Authority is a state
agency dedicated to improving the
administration of criminal justice in
Illinois. The basic functions of the
Authority are criminal justice
research, federal and state grants
administration, and information
systems development and support.
For more information, or for copies
of this or other publications, contact
the Authority at (312) 793-8550, or
visit our Web site at
www.icjia.state.il.us.
The evaluation was supported by contract
#98JEFX0017 awarded to the Illinois
Department of Human Services (IDHS) for
the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission (IJJC)
by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
(OJJDP), and by contract #011G0000257
awarded to the Authority by IDHS and IJJC.
Points of view in this document do not
necessarily represent the official position or
policies of IDHS, IJJC, or OJJDP.
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois,
December 2002. Printing order #03-104;
6,500 copies.
George H. Ryan
Governor
Peter B. Bensinger
Chairman
Candice M. Kane
Executive Director
ILLINOIS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
INFORMATION AUTHORITY
The 1990s were marked with
concerns over increasing numbers
of serious juvenile offenses. To
address these concerns, the governor and
General Assembly passed the Juvenile
Justice Reform Provisions of 1998 (P.A.
90-590). The reform provisions added a
component to the Illinois Juvenile Court
Act that targets violent and habitual
juvenile offenders (705 ILCS 405/5-801 to
705 ILCS 405/5-820).
The new component begins with a
legislative declaration that acknowledges
the existence of a small subset of violent
and habitual juvenile offenders who, for
the sake of community safety, should be
treated differently than other juvenile
offenders. It describes pre-existing
provisions for transferring minors from
juvenile court to adult court.
The component also includes a
provision that allows state’s attorneys to
petition the court for extended jurisdiction
juvenile (EJJ) prosecution if there is
probable cause to believe that a minor at
least 13 years old has committed an
offense that would be considered a felony
if committed by an adult. Minors who are
found guilty in EJJ prosecutions receive
both a juvenile sentence and an adult
sentence. The adult sentence is stayed
and not imposed unless the offender
violates the conditions of the juvenile
sentence. EJJ prosecutions are intended
to provide minors who have committed
serious offenses with a last chance to
avoid adult sanctions. At the same time,
the potential of an adult sentence is
intended to serve as a deterrent to future
criminal activity.
The Illinois Criminal Justice Informa-tion
Authority recently completed an
implementation evaluation of the reform
provisions. This On Good Authority
summarizes results from the evaluation
pertaining to EJJ prosecutions.
Evaluation methodology
In the evaluation, state’s attorneys or
assistant state’s attorneys who prosecute
juvenile cases, public defenders who
defend juvenile cases, and juvenile court
judges for each Illinois county were asked
to complete a survey that included
several questions on EJJ. Survey respon-dents
(76 prosecutors, 51 public defend-ers,
and 85 juvenile court judges)
answered questions about their participa-tion
in and opinions of EJJ prosecutions.
Surveys were administered during the
spring and summer of 2000.
The evaluation also included a case
study describing an EJJ prosecution,
including interviews with those involved
in the case. Information pertaining to the
case also was obtained during the spring
and summer of 2000.
By Timothy Lavery
Research Analyst