Truth-in-sentencing costs Illinois thousands of years — and billions of dollars

In 1998, a new law quietly multiplied the years many people would spend locked up in Illinois prisons. 

“Truth-in-sentencing,” a policy passed by the Illinois General Assembly during a wave of “tough-on-crime” laws, promised to create more transparency around prison sentences. 

Instead, the policy rolled back opportunities to earn sentence reductions by eliminating or sharply limiting “good conduct” credits that had long structured how prison time was served.