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Class 4 Felony Offenders
Co-principal investigators: Ernie Cowles and Laura Gransky Dorman

In 1995 researchers in the Center for Legal Studies (now the Institute for Legal and Policy Studies) were funded by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to develop a descriptive overview of incarcerated Class 4 offenders in the Illinois correctional system. The ultimate goal of this project was to ascertain whether it would be appropriate to divert a portion of the Class 4 population to free bed space in the state correctional facilities for more serious offenders. The study results reveal that the majority of the Class 4 offenders are "exactly where they should be." Prior criminal histories for the sample groups seemed, for the most part, extensive and varied. Many of these people, although incarcerated on the least serious felony classification, had prior criminal involvements that have resulted in prior imprisonment, jail time, and probation. In essence, the incarcerated Class 4 offenders may be in prison as a result of not having refrained from continued criminal involvements despite having been subjected to prior sanctions.