Of crime and the courts

Trends in crime through 2000

We're all getting older. Criminals, too, will be older. While the total number of arrests is expected to remain stable in Illinois through the year 2000, more offenders will be older. By 2000, because of the declining birth rate, the 30-59 age group will comprise 42 percent of Illinois' population. From that age group in Chicago, arrests for murder are expected to increase 8 percent and in the rest of state by 11 percent. At the same time, arrests for murder among the 17-29 age group are expected to remain the same or decline. Projections for criminal sexual assault are similar, with arrests among the 30-59 year olds increasing by 29 percent in Chicago and 17 percent in the rest of Illinois. Arrests in other categories reveal similar patterns, with a rapid increase in larceny/theft predicted for the 30-59 group.

Source: Illinois Criminal Justice Authority, Trends and Issues 89: Criminal and Juvenile Justice in lllinois.

Drug-related crimes

Drug arrests have increased sharply, and the trend is expected to continue: 25,400 arrests in 1983; 34,900 arrests in 1987; 62,500 arrests by 2000, when drug arrests will nearly equal those for property crimes.

Other trends signal additional drug-related pressures on already overtaxed criminal justice and judicial systems:

• Between 1983 and 1987 admissions to state prisons for drug offenses more than doubled.
• In the same period the length of stay in prison increased for drug offenders: for class X offenses from about 2.5 to almost 3.5 years; for class 1 offenders from almost 1.5 to nearly 2 years.
• The backlog of drug cases at state police crime labs increased from just over zero in 1983 to more than 1,800 for the first 10 months of 1988.

Reducing the number of addicts through treatment — perhaps the key to the problem —is not presently effective because appropriations for facilities have not kept up with the increase in the number of convictions. From 1985-89 the number of drug-abusing offenders awaiting treatment nearly tripled.

Not susceptible to measure is the degree to which violent crimes against person and property are drug-related, but it can be assumed that such crime will increase as drug arrests increase.

Source: Illinois Criminal Justice and Information Authority, "News," May 21, 1989.

Disciplining lawyers

Attorney discipline in Illinois is the task — growing one — of the Attorney Registration an Disciplinary Commission (ARDC).

Determined to clean up the backlog and speet up the process, the ARDC closed 5,284 case in 1988.

The Illinois Supreme Court too closed a record number (352) of attorney-related matters in 1988. Disciplinary action occurred in 112 cases (32 disbarments, 55 suspensions, 25 censures).

By the end of last year, 50 attorneys or judges implicated by the federal Greylord investigation in Cook County have been disbarred or suspended; 23 Greylord-related cases were still within the three-tiered ARDC investigative process.

Who pays for lawyer discipline? Mainly the attorneys through annual registration fees paid to the ARDC. In 1988, these fees brought in over $4 million in revenue for the ARDC; other sources totaled slightly over $200,000. The bottom line? Revenue outran expenditures by $769,154.

Source: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (1988).

Paying more for their discipline

Regardless of the revenue overrun for ARDC, lawyers will pay higher annual registration fees for projected improvements in ARDC operations.

At the end of May 1989 approximately 680 lawyers had failed to pay fees, to the tune of over $100,000.

Source: Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, June 2, 1989.

Attorney availability

Need a lawyer? Try Cook County. There are over 30,000 of them there. At the other end of the state in Pope County, there are only two.

Source: ARDC Annual Report.

Clearing court backlogs by arbitration in Winnebago County

To speed the legal process and reduce crowded court dockets the Illinois Supreme Court promulgated rules in June 1987 for mandatory arbitration in civil cases involving monetary claims below $15,000. In October 1987 Winnebago County began a pilot program that disposed of 1,247 lawsuits in 17 months; only two reached the courts following rejection of arbitration.

Now, once such a case is filed in Winnebago County, a hearing is scheduled within six months. Prior to the program, over 26 months elapsed between filing and verdict.

Source: Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, December 20, 1988; May 1, 1989.

. . . and in DuPage and Lake, but not in Cook

Winnebago County's success prompted the General Assembly to appropriate $750,000 for arbitration programs during fiscal year 1989. This allowed the startup of programs in Lake and DuPage counties. The legislature, however, rejected a request for $2.5 million for the first phase of a program in Cook County.

In its budget request for fiscal 1990 the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts included $3.5 million for mandatory arbitration programs in Winnebago, DuPage, Lake and Cook counties. The General Assembly appropriated only the $809,000 for the programs in Lake, DuPage and Winnebago counties; it rejected the $2.7 million earmarked for Cook County to set up a pilot program in the 1st Municipal District.

Source for fiscal 1989: Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, November 18, 1988. Source for fiscal year 1990: John Madigan, Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts.

General funds

The state's financial picture has improved substantially. A year ago on June 30, 1988, as fiscal year 1988 ended, the balance in the state's general fund was $246,371 million. This June 30, the general fund showed the highest fiscal year-end balance in state history, $540,674 million, an increase of $294,303 million.

"There was a surprise growth in revenues," said Bill Draeos of the comptroller's office. "Everybody underestimated revenue growth. Revenues were up $513 million." Revenue increases of note were: sales tax, up $219 million; federal government sources, $142 million (9 percent increase); and individual income taxes, $142 million. At the same time, Draeos said, "Spending didn't grow. It was up only $310 million."

The end-of-month balance for this July (first month of fiscal 1990) was $782,657 million, up compared to last July's $264,889 million. "A big difference," said Draeos, "was that spending was down $148 million."

The average daily balance in the general fund for this June was $421.303 million; for July it was S697.656 million.

Source: Office of the Comptroller.

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Unemployment diminishing; employment at record levels

In employment, Illinois is looking at a "gradual and steady economic recovery," says Lynn Pierce of the Department of Employment Security. "Manufacturing, for 28 consecutive months, is showing over-the-year increases," said Pierce. "From July 1988 to July 1989, there has been an increase of 12,000 jobs. In July, there were 984,000 manufacturing jobs, the highest since 1984 when there were 1,002,900."

A year ago in June, only two of 13 metro areas had unemployment rates below 5 percent. This June's statistics show that all 13 metro areas saw their unemployment rates plunge by at least .3 percent. Eight metro areas had unemployment decreases ranging from 1.0 to 2.3 percent. The Metro-East St. Louis area with the greatest decline, went from 9.3 to 7.0.

Six of Illinois metro areas had record low unemployment for June 1989: Aurora-Elgin, Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul, Chicago, Joliet, Lake County and the Metro-East area of St. Louis. Five had all-time high employment levels in June 1989: Aurora-Elgin, Bloomington-Normal, the Champaign area, Chicago, Kan-kakee, Lake County and the Metro-East area. The metro areas and their unemployment rates in April, May and June 1988 and June 1989 were:

In June, the nation's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.3 percent, up from May's 5.2 percent. In Illinois, the unemployment rate was 5.5, down from 5.7. In July, the national rate was 5.2. The state rate was 5.6.

In June, there were 5,934,000 people in the state's civilian labor force. Of these, 5,609,000 were working and 325,000 were looking for jobs. In July, there were 5,860,000 people in the labor force. Of these, 5,533,000 were working and 327,000 were looking for jobs.

Source: Department of Employment Security.

F. Mark Siebert and Pat Harrison

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