Rep. John Cabello (R-Machesney Park) doesn't think stricter sentencing for repeated gun violence offenders is the answer to Chicago's crime rate -- but it is part of it, he argued on Monday.
“We have some major problems in this state,” Cabello said. “We have a major crime problem. You and I know that our criminal justice system is broken. You and I know that this bill, and many of the pieces of legislation that we have passed, is not going to fix this problem, but it is a piece of the overall solution.”
SB1722, sponsored by Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Spring), would allow for presumptive sentencing and increase the range of imprisonment for a second-time felon convicted of the unlawful use of a weapon to a minimum of seven years and maximum of 14 years. The bill came about as a response to the rampant violence that has plagued Illinois' largest city.
Cabello echoed what some of the bill’s opponents said regarding violence in Illinois: The state needs to view the violence from a different angle and tackle the root cause.
“We are going to have to look at it in a lot of different ways,” he said. “We have to look at early childhood education; we have to look at adult supervision; we have to look at addiction recovery. We’ve got a wider angle of things that we must look at."
Cabello applauded the General Assembly's work toward addressing the violence and enacting reform, but concluded that the state needs to do more.
“We here as a chamber, we're great in passing police reforms,” Cabello said. “We as a chamber, we're great in passing a lot of criminal justice reforms. I look forward to helping pass more. I look forward to hopefully getting a crime commission back together so that we can continue the work that we as a body did. Ladies and gentlemen, this bill is not going to solve every single problem, but it will be a tiny piece of that overall huge problem that we have.”
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