Changing Course: A Review of the First Two Years of Drug Transfer Reform in Illinois
Published May 31, 2008, Illinois Juvenile Justice Initiative
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Details the reform efforts that led to passage of PA 94-0574, which reversed the automatic transfer of juvenile drug cases to adult court, and the impact the law has had in the two years after it went into effect. The most significant finding is that automatic transfers in Cook County went down by more than two-thirds without any corresponding increase in juvenile caseloads. These and other findings strongly suggests that the rollback of the Illinois drug transfer law had no detrimental effect on public safety. Includes overview of transfer policies throughout the US.