Leading the Way
Illinois House Republicans - Leading the Way

2007 Anti-Gang Package

2007 - STATEWIDE HOUSE REPUBLICAN ANTI-GANG INITIATIVE

  1. Preventing gangs from recruiting new members on or adjacent to school grounds.  Makes it a felony to encourage people to join gangs on or adjacent to school property.  Strengthens the criminalization of the act of recruiting gang membership on or adjacent to school property.  This act is already a Class 1 felony (4-15 years) if a threat is made to force a victim to join a gang, and this act will become a Class 2 felony (3-7 years) if no threat is made and the victim is recruited or induced to join a gang.  Under current law, this act is not a criminal offense unless a threat is made. HB 434 (Munson-Cole-Reboletti-Coladipietro)


  2. Requires violent career offenders, released from Illinois prisons, to register and have their names and faces posted on the Internet when they move to a community.   Enacts a new Violent Career Offender Registration Law.  This bill is similar to the current sex offender and child murderer laws. Sex offenders and child murderers must now register with law local law enforcement agencies.  There is substantial case law upholding the constitutionality and validity of these laws.  This bill will apply to all violent career offenders who are not required to register under existing State laws.  The states of Kansas and Florida have enacted similar legislation. HB 435 (Wait)   

  1. Bans gang recruitment in public parks.   This new proposal will criminalize gang recruitment in parks.  This initiative is modeled after existing law that had been spearheaded by House Republicans banning gang recruitment on public property in schools, on school grounds, or adjacent to school grounds.  The offense will be a Class 1 felony (4-15 years).   HB 436 (Hassert-Cross)

  1. Requires all juveniles found delinquent to be placed in a gang workshop detention education program.   Creates mandatory jail time for a juvenile offender.  The bill requires, in addition to any other sentence to which the juvenile may be required to serve, that he or she enroll in a gang workshop detention education program of no less than 12 hours.  HB 437 (Winters-Munson-Schmitz)

  2. Gang resistance education and training. Allows school districts, in coordination with local law enforcement agencies, to provide gang resistance education and training to students in grades K-12. Street-gangs have been found to be an influential problem for children as young as 7 and 8 years old.  This concept will build on provisions passed during the 94th G.A. encouraging school districts to provide bullying prevention curriculum to students in grades K-12.  HB 438 adds that these school districts should coordinate with local law enforcement agencies to provide gang resistance training and education. Arizona, California, and Colorado have already begun work on this critical and vulnerable stage for school age children.  For example, Arizona’s Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program, is modeled after DARE programs.  It brings educators and local law enforcement officials together to provide life-skills training and educate pupils and their families about gangs.  The program includes curricula targeted towards elementary school pupils, middle-school pupils, summer programs, and a families program. Federal legislation recently authorized $20 million in grant funding over the next four years (FY06 through FY10) for local law enforcement agencies to access for GREAT program purposes.  HB 438 (Pritchard-Poe)    

  1. Increases penalties for aggravated assault when the act is committed with a firearm from a motor vehicle.  Drive-by shootings are spreading from inner city neighborhoods to the expanse of rural Illinois where stray bullets are far more likely to travel greater distances causing greater danger to innocent people.   Under current law, aggravated assault with a firearm is a Class 4 felony (1-3 years).   HB 439 allows for a Class 3 felony (2-5 years) when the firearm is discharged from a motor vehicle.  HB 439 (McAuliffe-Wait-Munson)

  1. Increasing criminal penalties for a wide variety of acts in furtherance of gang activity, including first offenses. Increases, by one level, every criminal penalty imposed for the acts of kidnapping, assault, battery, robbery, arson, or unlawful use of weapons, when these offenses are committed in furtherance of gang activity.  These acts will be charged as aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, aggravated robbery, aggravated arson, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.  Simple gun possession in furtherance of gang activity, such as the possession of a gun inside a crack house, will be a serious felony even if the gun is not loaded or carried in a public place outside the possessor’s home. HB 440 (Hassert-Munson)   

  1. Strengthens aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by non-felon gang members from a Class 4 felony (1-3 years) to a Class 2 felony (3-7 years).   The bill ensures that a gang offender who carries a loaded gun around on the street, ready to fire, will receive a harsh penalty, by making the charge against him or her a Class 2 felony drawing a minimum sentence of 3 years in state prison. HB 441 also toughens aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a previously convicted felon gang member from a Class 2 felony to a Class 1 felony (4-15 years).  Felons cannot possess firearms in Illinois, and for them to carry guns around on a public street, ready to fire, is already a serious felony.  A person convicted of a Class 1 felony must be sentenced to not less than 4 and not more than 15 years in Illinois state prison. HB 441 (Munson)

  1. Isolates street gang members from each other by prohibiting street gang members from contacting each other while on parole or probation.  HB 442 provides that a person commits the offense of unlawful contact with street gang members when he or she knowingly has direct or indirect contact with a street gang member, after having been ordered by a judge in any non-criminal proceeding to refrain from direct or indirect contact with a street gang member or members, or after having been released from the Illinois Department of Corrections in the standing of a person on parole or mandatory supervised release.  Violation of this law while on parole or mandatory supervised release is a Class 4 felony (1-3 years). HB 442 (Coladipietro-Munson)      

  1. Increases prison time for repeat gang-related felony offenses.  Instructs the state’s attorneys to bring Class X felony (6-30 years) charges and seek Class X sentences for the third repetition of a serious gang-related felony offense.  Provides that a person at least 21 years of age, who is convicted of a gang-related felony, after having been twice convicted of a Class 2 felony (3-7 years) or greater Class felony, shall be sentenced as a Class X offender.  This special treatment will be for three-time offenders who have committed three separate serious felonies in furtherance of gang activity – professional gang members for whom rehabilitation is a distant prospect. HB 443 (Wait-Munson)

  1. Creates an enhanced penalty for criminal damage to government-supported crime fighting property, such as police motor vehicles and surveillance cameras.  Increases the existing Class 4 felony - Class 1 felony matrix for criminal damage to property by one notch for each offense when the property damaged is government-supported crime fighting property. HB 444 (Reboletti-Coladipietro)

  1. Toughen criminal penalties for manufacturing and selling false identifications.  Recent research indicates that Illinois criminal gangs are engaged in the widespread manufacture of false identifications and ID numbers for their members.  This endangers both law enforcement and national security.  This bill increases the penalty for manufacturing and selling false identification cards or other identifiers from the current Class 4 felony (1-3 years) level to a Class 3 felony (2-5 years), and a Class 2 felony (3-7 years) if the false ID was manufactured or transferred in furtherance of gang activity. HB 445 (Munson-Mulligan-Bassi-Winters)

  1. Seeks to eliminate good conduct credit and good behavior – “Truth-in-Sentencing” on all gang-related felony convictions.  Current law requires that certain enumerated crimes of violence mandate that the defendant serves no less than 85% of his or her sentence.  HB 446 provides for Truth-in-Sentencing for any felony conviction that has been demonstrated to be in furtherance of gang related activity.  Under this bill a felony conviction, even if not inherently violent, which is acted out in furtherance of gang activity, will trigger Truth-in-Sentencing guidelines. HB 446 (Mitchell, B-Wait-Munson)  

  1. Criminalizes Internet Gang recruitment.  House Republicans recognize the growing use of the Internet for gang activity.  Many Internet sites have pictures of alleged gang members, gang colors, signs and their weapons.  Some sites detail a gang's history and boundaries and feature pictures of graffiti with which members have tagged their turf.  The sites honor dead gang members with guest books and music and vow vengeance against the killers.  Many also feature chat rooms and bulletin boards for on-line communication.  House Republican members believe such sites are a new means to advertise drug dealing, send messages to other gang members, and recruitment of new members.  HB 447 makes it a crime to post a message, advertise, invite, encourage or otherwise solicit another person for the purpose of recruiting gang membership. HB 447 (Reboletti-Munson)

  1. Requires the State to collect and analyze DNA samples from convicted felons within 30 days of sentencing.   Gang members and other felons often escape additional charges by presenting only one of their identities to police at and after the time of arrest.  Current law requires each convicted felon to submit a DNA sample to law enforcement for testing, match, and possible police and prosecution follow-up if the holder of the DNA has also been suspected, arrested, or charged with another offense or offenses.  However, this necessary step in law enforcement is not being done in a timely manner here in Illinois, because DNA samples are piling up in our overburdened crime laboratories. HB 448 requires the State Police to collect and analyze DNA samples from all convicted felons within 30 days of the felon’s sentencing, so that further charges may be brought as appropriate. HB 448 (Durkin)

  1. Increases penalties for identity theft in furtherance of the operations of an organized gang, by elevating this offense up to aggravated identity theft.  Many law enforcement groups nationwide are reporting that the “new” money making industry for street gangs is identity theft.  Savvy gang leaders are now sitting behind computers with stolen social security numbers and making a bundle. HB  449 makes all identity thefts in furtherance of the operations of an organized criminal gang, aggravated identity thefts. Under current law, the penalty for identity theft is anywhere from a Class A misdemeanor (up to 1 year in jail) to a Class 1 felony (4-15 years in prison), depending on the value of the property stolen as a result of the identity theft.  Aggravated identity theft is enhanced so that the penalty ranges from a Class 4 felony (1-3 years in prison) to a Class X felony (6-30 years in prison), depending on the severity of the offense.  The offense of aggravated identity theft is usually prosecuted, under current law, against persons who steal the identities of persons age 60 and over. HB 449 (Tracy-Sullivan-Cole-Munson) 

  1. Getting kids off the street and preventing the “latch-key” type environment for many of our youth makes a difference in preventing gang involvement.  The simple reality is that the State needs more funding for after-school programs.  More funding means more programs, which saves the State money by ensuring that children are led down the right path of life rather than clogging our court systems and becoming a financial burden to our State. This additional appropriation which will fund 500 additional grants, based upon an average Teen REACH grant of $10,000. Teen Reach was funded with $19.1 million in FY07.  Teen REACH, founded in 1998, provides supplemental funding to local health departments, community organizations, and faith-based groups to operate after-school programs after 3 p.m. and before 8 p.m.  Teen REACH programs aim at improving the academic performances of at-risk youths, providing them with life-skills education, and fostering increased parental involvement in thee lives of their children. Increases funding by $5.0 million for the Illinois Teen REACH program within the Department of Human Services (DHS). HB 450 (Lindner-Mulligan-Cross-Munson)

  2. Makes gang-related non-firearm felonies against police, firefighters, and first-medical responders Truth in Sentencing offences.  A “Truth in Sentencing” offense is the type of offense that is generally thought as extremely violent or dangerous.  A person convicted of a Truth in Sentencing offense may not be granted more than 4.5 days of good conduct credit for each 30 days of time served.  Gang violence often discourages public safety officers from promptly responding to calls for help.  Increasing penalties for violence against these ‘first responders’ should help overall Illinois public safety. HB 199 will require these persons to serve at least 85% of his or her sentence.  First-medical responders include paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMT care providers).  HB 199 (Coladipietro-Wait)