Illinois state budget allocates $20 million to address cuts in crisis services for victims of sexual assault – NBC Chicago

When Springfield state lawmakers passed a budget plan early this week, it included a $20 million infusion to offset federal cuts that have led to layoffs and closures of rape crisis centers across Illinois.

Advocates say the lack of available counselors, advocates and crisis centers for rape victims due to federal funding cuts last fiscal year resulted in 1,400 fewer victims of sexual violence receiving help.

News of the approval of state funds came less than a week after NBC 5 Investigates’ recent series “Dismissed” revealed that reported sexual assaults in Chicago rarely resulted in an arrest and conviction.

According to an analysis by NBC 5 Investigates, of the more than 21,000 sex crimes reported to Chicago police between 2018 and 2023, authorities made fewer than 1,600 arrests. Court records show that hundreds of cases have fizzled out in court. Overall, our investigation found that only 1.5 percent of all reported sex crimes resulted in prison convictions.

In more than 200 other convictions in Cook County Criminal Court, we found that those accused of sex offenses also pleaded guilty to less serious charges—non-sex-related charges such as aggravated assault or kidnapping—which in some cases meant they received little or no prison time or were not required to register as sex offenders.

The end result of this is what one expert has called “case attrition,” which can leave survivors feeling that their accounts of sexual assault have been undermined or ignored.

Last year, federal funding cuts led to the closure of five off-site rape victim crisis centers across the state of Illinois, and 14 hospitals no longer have 24-hour sex offender crisis services to help victims of sexual violence in their time of need, according to the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

In the south suburb of Chicago Heights, Debra Perry, director of Advocacy and Crisis Prevention Services, told NBC 5 Investigates, “There are a lot of survivors out there who are not getting help and therefore don’t know what their options are.”

Due to federal spending cuts to the Victims of Crime Act, the funding basis for rape crisis centers, the YWCA was forced to lay off seven employees and cut off ties with area hospitals, Perry said.

The waiting lists for counseling, which were already months long, became even longer.

“We know that probably over two-thirds of the rape crisis centers have had to lay off at least one person because of our funding cuts,” said Carrie Ward of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Ward estimates that because of the cuts, about 1,400 victims of sexual violence received no help at a time of need.

NBC 5 Investigates spoke with several sexual assault victims as part of our reporting for this series. Among them was Shelavontay Tucker, who agreed to be interviewed about her 2019 sexual assault. The incident ended with two sexual assault charges being dropped against her ex-boyfriend, who later pleaded guilty to a single count of kidnapping.

“I had to seek therapy. I ended up on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. I wanted to commit suicide and didn’t know how to talk to my husband or anyone else about it,” Tucker said.

Tucker said the counseling gave her guidance at a time when everything seemed lost.

There was good news for advocates like Perry and members of ICASA this week when Illinois state lawmakers approved the state budget, which included ICASA’s request for $20 million for support services for victims of sexual assault.

“This means we are getting back the staff we had to lay off. For the counseling program, this means we now have more counselors to serve the clients who are currently on our waiting list. This is good news.”

Proponents do not consider this $20 million as “new money.”

Perry said instead they would simply make up for what was lost last year. ICASA would manage the money and advocacy groups like the YWCA would apply for grants.

Carrie Ward of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault said of the state budget increase, “We are incredibly grateful that the General Assembly has answered our call to invest more state funds in services for victims of sexual assault across the state of Illinois. Once the budget bill is signed and we have access to the funds, ICASA will use our application and allocation policies and procedures to distribute the funds among the 31 ICASA centers.”

The manner in which the money will be distributed will be determined as part of ICASA’s application review process, Ward said.

“However, our intent is to use the funds as requested to mitigate the impact of the cuts in federal funding to the VOCA program … by restoring or strengthening services that were eliminated or reduced as a result of the cuts and by increasing wages for sex offender program staff to counteract the effects of inflation, staff turnover/burnout, and salaries that have not kept pace with the market,” she said.

Ward also told NBC 5 Investigates that the funds provided could help avert another loss of federal funding when funds from the American Rescue Plan Act expire.