Madigan: House unanimously passes Bill to strengthen sentencing for child pornography offenders

SPRINGFIELD, IL  – Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan today praised the House of Representatives for its unanimous vote in support of legislation that will help strengthen prosecutors’ efforts to protect children from pornographers.

“This clarification in the law will provide prosecutors another tool as they work to crack down on dangerous predators in possession of child pornography,” said Rep. McAsey. “I appreciate the opportunity to work with Attorney General Madigan and remain committed to strengthening Illinois law to protect our children from victimization.”

Madigan also stressed the importance of HB 2647 in light of the consecutive sentencing model that her office helped draft and was enacted last year that directs courts to impose longer mandatory consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences for child pornography-related offenses.

In addition to her legislative efforts to combat child pornography, Madigan conducts “Operation Glass House,” an ongoing statewide initiative to apprehend the most active child pornography traders in Illinois. In the first year of Operation Glass House, Madigan’s investigations revealed a disturbing trend of offenders trading extremely violent videos of young children being raped. As a result, Operation Glass House has focused on apprehending offenders who are seen trading and watching extremely violent videos involving children, including infants and toddlers.

Madigan’s office, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, also runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, which investigates child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement agencies. Since 2006, Madigan’s ICAC task force has been involved in 552 arrests of sexual predators. The task force has also provided Internet safety training and education to more than 286,000 parents, teachers and students and 16,258 law enforcement professionals. Currently, 182 agencies are affiliated with the Illinois ICAC.