By Marcia M. Meis, Director, Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts
Earlier this summer, Gov. Pritzker signed into law three bills supported by the Judicial Branch: (1) The budget bill - marking the sixth consecutive year that the Illinois Supreme Court’s funding request was fulfilled; (2) HB 4621 - making the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services (OSPS) a standalone agency under the Illinois Judicial Branch; and (3) HB 4226 - clarifying recent changes to the Circuit Courts Act and the Associate Judges Act as they pertain to Cook County.
State Fiscal Year 2025 Illinois Judicial Branch Budget
With the new State of Illinois fiscal year having begun on July 1, we in the state courts are extremely grateful and pleased to report another year of full funding for the operations of the Illinois Supreme Court, Illinois Appellate Court, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC), OSPS, and other state-funded court programs. Importantly, nearly 80 percent of the Judicial Branch budget funds statutorily mandated expenditures, such as judicial salaries, probation reimbursements to counties, and other obligations. Like many offices in the other branches of government, the Supreme Court budget experienced years of flat funding or worse in the 2000’s to 2010’s. Supreme Court probation reimbursements to counties were at the 64% level as recently as FY 2019. But thanks to enhanced legislative outreach and concerted efforts to better educate on the importance of probation and other court services, probation reimbursements are on track to be funded at the statutorily required 100 percent level for the sixth straight year. We look forward to providing continued support for probation and so many other Supreme Court core functions, programs and initiatives in FY 2025.
Office of Statewide Pretrial Services to be a Standalone Agency
The Governor also signed HB 4621 which amends the Pretrial Services Act to establish OSPS as a stand-alone, independent agency within the Illinois Judicial Branch. OSPS was created by the Supreme Court in 2021 to provide pretrial services in counties without a pretrial services agency. The creation of OSPS was critical to meet the statutory requirements within the Pretrial Fairness Act and the abolition of cash bail in Illinois. Since its inception, OSPS has been a division of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (AOIC). Under the leadership of OSPS Director, Judge Cara LeFevour Smith (ret.), the office has – in less than two years - quickly grown to a staff of well over 200 individuals who provide pretrial services for 77 counties and have completed tens of thousands of pretrial investigations.
The new law includes the following key items:
- Provides that the office shall be under the supervision and direction of a Director who shall be appointed by a majority vote of the Illinois Supreme Court Justices for a 4-year term.
- Provides that the Director shall adopt rules, instructions, and orders, consistent with the Act, further defining the organization of this office and the duties of its employees.
- Provides that the Illinois Supreme Court shall approve or modify an operational budget submitted to it by the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services and set the number of employees each year.
- Provides that the Chief Judge of each circuit court shall elect to receive pretrial services either through the Office or through a local pretrial services agency.
- Provides that the pretrial services agency has a duty to provide the court with accurate background data regarding the pretrial release of persons charged with felonies and effective supervision of compliance with the terms and conditions imposed on release.
The AOIC and OSPS already are working hard to be ready for the July 1, 2025, transition date.
Amendments to the Circuit Courts Act and Associate Judges Act
HB 4226 amended the Circuit Courts Act and Associate Judges Act to clarify issues with the conversion of associate judgeships in Cook County’s Judicial Subcircuits:
- Provides that vacancies in associate judgeships authorized under specified provisions of the Associate Judges Act occurring on or after June 1, 2023, shall be converted to resident circuit judgeships and shall be allotted in numerical order to subcircuits 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, until there are 11 resident judges to be elected from each of those subcircuits (for a total of 55).
- Provides that beginning with the 2024 election cycle, the maximum number of former associate judgeship vacancies to be converted to resident circuit judgeships that may be allotted in an election cycle to Judicial Subcircuits 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 shall be 10 resident circuit judgeships, with each subcircuit allotted no more than 2 resident circuit judgeships per election cycle.
- Provides that any additional associate judgeship vacancies in excess of the maximum number per election cycle shall not be converted to resident circuit judgeships and shall be filled according to Supreme Court Rule until a vacancy in the associate judgeship occurs.
- Provides that a vacancy occurs when an associate judge dies, resigns, retires, is removed, or is not reappointed upon expiration of his or her term; a vacancy does not occur at the expiration of a term if the associate judge is reappointed.
We thank the Legislative and Executive branches for listening to our requests and equipping the Illinois Judicial Branch to move forward on all fronts. The passage of these bills provided a great start to summer! Now if only we could legislate summer to pass more slowly…