Redeploy Illinois, a criminal justice reform program that rehabilitates non-violent adult and juvenile offenders, has struggled to operate since the budget stalemate and is now facing additional uncertainty as the stopgap budget is set to expire at the end of December.

Redeploy Illinois, a criminal justice reform program that rehabilitates non-violent adult and juvenile offenders, has struggled to operate since the budget stalemate and is now facing additional uncertainty as the stopgap budget is set to expire at the end of December.

Rehabilitating low-level non-violent adult and juvenile felons has proven to be more cost effective for taxpayers in Illinois than sending them to prison, and is more beneficial for the offenders and communities.

Rehabilitation through Adult Redeploy Illinois costs $4,400 compared to $23,400 in incarcerations costs, according to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

In Macon County, the program was suspended in November 2015 for almost a year.

Macon County State’s Attorney Jay Scott said such programs are necessary because they prevent recidivism and save taxpayer dollars.

“The first year of the Adult Redeploy Illinois program in Macon County alone saved $1.2 million dollars,” Scott said.

Keyria Rodgers, director of Special Projects for Macon County, said Illinois taxpayers have continued to save money annually.

“In the Redeploy report, you can actually find that this program has actually saved over $80 million from 2005 to 2014 in unnecessary prison costs,” Rodgers said.

The Juvenile Redeploy Illinois rehabilitation program started more than 10 years ago and within three years, the program cut the number of youth sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice by 51 percent, saving the state and taxpayers almost $19 million, Rodgers said.

Rodgers said the state of Illinois pays thousands of dollars to warehouse juvenile offenders that could benefit from paying their debt to society by working in the community.

“It costs $111,000 to send one kid to prison for the year, $111,000. And that’s per kid,” Rodgers said.

Scott believes evidence shows, year after year, that rehabilitation not only benefits offenders, but taxpayers who are caught in the vicious cycle of paying the cost to imprison repeat offenders.

“If we can work with them in the community, and keep them out of prison, and save tax dollars, that’s a plus for everybody in the state,” Scott said.

Adult Redeploy Illinois has 22 sites across 39 Illinois counties.

— Redeploy Illinois in jeopardy as stopgap budget expiration draws close —