A bill that aims to boost compensation for wrongfully incarcerated individuals recently moved a step forward towards legislation in the Illinois Assembly.
Led by state Senator Elgie Sims (D-Chicago), House Bill 3663 passed the Senate Executive Committee after a second reading on the Assembly floor May 7. The bill now moves to a third reading for a final debate and vote in the Illinois Senate.
It’s uncertain whether lawmakers are pushing to have the bill passed into law before the legislative session ends May 31. But in a statement, Sims said, “We must be vigilant in making sure the criminal justice system upholds fairness. That means acknowledging the life-changing pain caused by wrongful incarceration and supporting the individuals and families who have been affected by this grave injustice.”
The bill was first introduced in February 2025 in the Illinois House by State Representative Justin Slaughter.
Sims and state Senator Maddie Hunter are among the Senate sponsors of the bill, which aims to address the harms of wrongful imprisonment for people who have been exonerated. The proposed legislation would provide compensation of up to $50,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment, including time spent in pre-trial detention or a juvenile detention facility before a wrongful conviction. If signed into legislation, the bill would also give $25,000 per year wrongfully spent on probation, parole or the sex offender registry.
Last year, the Illinois House approve the proposed compensation, which is also gaining support in the Senate chamber.
“No amount of money could ever replace years lost while being wrongfully imprisoned,” Sims said in a statement. “But this is one purposeful step we can take to begin repairing some of that harm with meaningful compensation that acknowledges the injustice they’ve faced.”
Under the current system, the Illinois Court of Claims compensates wrongfully incarcerated individuals for only 14 years, with a cap of $200,000. Under the new bill, the payout cap would be $2 million.
According to Sims, since 1989, there have been over 600 exonerations in the Illinois. Under the current law, lawmakers say compensation has been inconsistent and inadequate compensation for these individuals, with an average award of $11,190 per year of wrongful imprisonment.
Citing data from the Illinois Innocence Project, Sims said one exoneree who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 27 years received an annual award of $5,985, while another who was wrongfully imprisoned for less than three years was awarded $35,562 per year.
For years Cook County has been known as the “false confession capital of America.” There are more wrongful convictions in Cook County than any county in the country.
However, Illinois ranks among states with the lowest compensation for wrongfully jailed exonerees.
In 2024, Capital News Illinois reported the state faced a backlog of almost 279 pending wrongful conviction civil cases, nearly seven times more than the next closest state, New York at 41.
Despite Illinois making up just 4 percent of the country’s population, the state is responsible for 16 percent of overturned wrongful convictions in the U.S. Over 90 percent of exonerees in Illinois are Black or Latino compared to the nationwide rate of 65 percent.
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