September 29, 2020
Adult Redeploy Illinois (ARI) was established by the Crime Reduction Act (Public Act 96-0761) to provide financial grant incentives to local Illinois jurisdictions for programs that allow diversion of offenders from state prisons and county jails by providing community-based services. By providing enhanced community services to non-violent felony offenders, ARI reduces costly prison admissions which in turn lowers the cost to Illinois taxpayers. Recently, Peoria County Court Services has been awarded an ARI grant for SFY21 marking the 8th year that Peoria County has received this grant.
Peoria’s ARI grant fully funds 2.5 staff (2 Probation Officer’s and .5 Program Supervisor which includes salary and benefits) as well as all program incentives, participant assistance, GPS Electronic Monitoring, Alcohol Monitoring, and staff’s participation in the Illinois Association of Problem-Solving Courts. The ARI exclusively serves offenders in Peoria County.
The Peoria ARI Program for eligible offenders is 30 months and is broken into 4 phases. In the first phase, offenders are seen up to 4 times per month in the office and 8 times per month in the community. Some offenders are placed on electronic monitoring, while others are held to a curfew. Case plans are developed to assist with employment search, GED services, public service hours, and cognitive behavioral interventions. As offenders move from Phase 1 through Phase 4, they receive incentives along the way in the form of reduced supervision, removal from electronic monitoring or curfew, and gift card awards. It is this “performance incentive model” of ARI that is recognized as a national best practice for offender supervision. Additionally, the program provides offenders assistance in obtaining state identification, clothing for job interviews, and personal hygiene and food services.
This past fiscal year, Peoria ARI had 29 offender terminations. Of those terminations, 23 of 29 successfully completed the ARI Program (80% success rate). Without the ARI Program, all 29 would have been eligible for incarceration in a state prison, or the Peoria County Jail. Currently, ARI has 51 offenders in the program and heading into the next fiscal year, Peoria County Adult Probation looks to improve upon this success rate.