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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

New Measure Could Give Wrongfully Accused Prisoners Free Tuition

Loyola University

The Illinois senate recently passed a measure that would provide free GED tests and college tuition to people who have been wrongfully imprisoned. 

The grants would require legislative appropriation, and recipients would have to obtain a certificate of innocence from the circuit court. 

Dan Kotowski is a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the plan.

“This is a chance to right a wrong, and you know, we’ve spent millions of dollars in these cases to wrongfully imprison people,” Kotowski said. “And the least we could do for the people that this has happened to and their families is to give them a chance to get an education and to be successful.” 

Kotowski says the cost would be low because so few people qualify. 

“It doesn’t happen that often,” he said. “Think about the number of people that we have incarcerated in the state of Illinois and we’ve had over the last decades, and this is the number of people. We’re talking about 118 who would be in the eligible universe of who would be qualified for this program.”

The plan was suggested by the Life After Innocence Project at Loyola’s law school.

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