In her first major policy move since taking office, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is dramatically raising the bar for charging shoplifters with a felony crime.
Prosecutors were told Monday that retail theft charges should remain a misdemeanor unless the value of the stolen goods exceeds $1,000 or the alleged shoplifter has 10 prior felony convictions — a significant leap from the current standard of a single felony conviction.
Illinois has long had one of the lowest thresholds for filing felony retail theft charges in the Midwest, leading critics to argue that too many nonviolent offenders — many of them older and with significant mental health or addiction issues — were locked up at taxpayer expense for months or even years.
State legislators in 2010 raised the standard for felony shoplifting charges from the theft of goods worth $300 to $500, but have not acted on efforts by politicians including Foxx’s predecessor, Anita Alvarez, to raise the bar to $1,000.
Under the new standards, prosecutors in the felony review unit remain free to approve felony charges if they believe the circumstances call for them.
“The move clarifies guidelines for how felony retail theft cases will be handled to ensure consistency in charging and to prioritize limited resources,” spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said in a statement. “Prosecutors will retain the discretion to review cases and take appropriate action on a case by case basis.”
It remains to be seen what the practical effect of the shift will be, but supporters of the move have predicted it will lead to a significant decrease in the number of shoplifters locked up in Cook County Jail. Nearly 80 percent of felony retail theft cases charged in Illinois between 2010 and 2012 were for a loss of less than $1,000, according to an analysis by the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council.
As of Wednesday, there were 101 people at Cook County Jail on felony retail theft charges, many of whom have spent months locked up because they can’t afford even a low cash bail, said Cara Smith, policy chief for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Last year, 76 defendants charged with felony shoplifting spent more time in jail than their eventual prison sentence, serving a total of 4,159 “dead days,” she said.
The extra cost to taxpayers? Nearly $674,000, according to county estimates.
“They’re a population we’ve long advocated should not be in the jail,” Smith said.
A representative at the Illinois Retail Merchants Association could not be reached Wednesday. Some prosecutors and police wondered how the new procedure would play out and if storekeepers would call police knowing the alleged shoplifters likely won’t be charged with a felony.
Illinois law now allows for Class 4 felony shoplifting charges even in cases in which the loss is less than $300 if the suspect has a prior conviction. Class 3 felony charges are filed in cases with a loss of $500 or more.
A study this year by the Pew Charitable Trusts that reviewed crime trends in 23 states that loosened felony theft thresholds found that crime dropped, on average, roughly the same in those states as in other states, and that there was no correlation between the felony threshold and property crime or larceny rates.
In Wisconsin, the felony threshold is a $2,500 loss, and the figure is $1,000 in Michigan and $750 in Indiana.
“I think this is a really positive step,” said Ali Abid, staff attorney at the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, who said keeping nonviolent offenders locked up only increased their chances of drug abuse and committing another crime.
Public Defender Amy Campanelli also welcomed the new procedure, saying it was a step toward achieving a larger social goal of providing nonviolent offenders with treatment to keep them from re-offending.
Freelance reporter Nick Swedberg contributed.
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke
