Raising retail crime threshold lessens its gravity – Herald-Whig

Posted: Mar. 30, 2017 3:15 pm

GOV. Bruce Rauner formed the Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform in February 2015 and tasked it with making recommendations to reduce the state's prison population by 25 percent by 2025.

The ambitious goal was made necessary because the state's prisons are among the most overcrowded in the nation, operating at 150 percent of design capacity. The Illinois prison population has grown from 6,000 inmates in 1974 to nearly 49,000 today, according to the Bureau of Justice.

Moreover, according to the Illinois Office of Management and Budget, it cost an average of $22,191 to incarcerate one inmate in an Illinois prison in 2014, or about $1.08 billion to house the total prison population that year. And 70 percent of the state's inmates are serving time for nonviolent crimes.

Two proposals now being debated in committee in the General Assembly, based on a recommendation by the commission, would raise the threshold of felony retail theft from $300 to either $2,000 or $2,500. A conviction is punishable by two to five years in prison, plus fines up to $25,000.

Proponents claim that most states have a felony threshold for shoplifting and general property theft four to five times as high as Illinois. For example, it is $2,500 in neighboring Wisconsin, while just $500 in Missouri. They contend that a shoplifter who steals $300 in goods should not receive the same penalty as someone convicted of aggravated battery, as is the case now.

However, opponents -- including the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the Illinois Sheriff's Association and the Illinois Municipal League -- counter that while they agree that there should be fewer nonviolent inmates in the state's prisons, increasing the felony threshold to $2,000 or $2,500 would diminish the seriousness of retail theft.

We agree.

Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said businesses in the state lose $2 billion annually to retail theft, losses that eventually are passed on to consumers through higher prices. The state and municipalities also lose out on potential sales tax revenue.

Furthermore, the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention says only one in 11 shoplifters is caught, and usually not on the first try.

"Any suggestion that retail theft is a victimless crime is simply wrong," Karr said.

Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley and Adams County Sheriff Brian VonderHaar say they would support a slight increase in the felony threshold, but neither agrees with the larger increases being proposed in Springfield.

"If somebody steals something -- whether it's a nice lawn mower or something that's worth $1,000 or $1,500 -- to say that's not a felony, I would not be in favor of that," VonderHaar told The Herald-Whig.

Clearly, Illinois' rising prison population is not sustainable. While reducing the number of nonviolent criminals in prison is a worthy and necessary goal, thieves should still know that there are serious consequences to stealing the property of others.

Allowing someone to steal $2,000 or $2,500 worth of merchandise before being charged with a felony does not achieve that.

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Raising retail crime threshold lessens its gravity - Herald-Whig