JHA contraband bill to provide data in order to inform targeted policymaking that reduces harm and improves safety for everyone inside Illinois prisons

Reports of drug-soaked contraband coming in through the mail were all over the media in the second half of 2024. The immediate call was to cease giving original, physical mail to people in custody and to move to mail scanning, a practice which we know hurts people. Further, it is not proven to stop the flow of illegal drugs into prisons – in some jurisdictions, there has even been an increase in drug overdoses in prisons once the system moved to scanning incoming mail to incarcerated people. 

In order to craft policies that are targeted, implementable, and impactful, it is important to fully understand the problem that must be solved.  However, there is a lack of public data from IDOC on contraband – including where it is found and how it enters – making it difficult to know how to stop it without causing further harm. “We have poorly defined the problem and we’re trying to solve it, you know, with a blunt force approach,” Jennifer Vollen-Katz said in an interview with WTTW 12/10/24.

With this in mind, JHA worked with legislators to draft SB2201, a bill which sought to expand and improve the transparency around contraband data in IDOC facilities. On March 18, 2025, JHA submitted formal testimony in support of the bill. Thanks to the leadership of Senator Graciela Guzman and Representative Gregg Johnson, SB 2201 passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly on May 31, 2025, virtually unanimously, and was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker on August 15th, 2025.

This important bill mandates yearly contraband data collection and publication by IDOC. The data will not only include types of contraband and method of entry, but also the response initiatives taken by facilities, including information about participation in and availability of substance use treatment and educational programming. Additionally, the bill promotes transparency regarding emergency response procedures, numbers of hospitalizations, and naloxone administration to individuals at each facility, data that is critical to better understanding the problem and how best to address it.

This law will provide Illinois with the data needed on prison contraband in order to create policies that will keep both people who are incarcerated and staff safe without implementing unnecessarily harmful and punitive practices.

Effective and impactful policy reform is data-driven. As the only independent prison oversight organization in Illinois, JHA will continue to emphasize the importance of making prison-related data available to the public.