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Attorney general working to fill DNA database 'gap'

Posted February 12, 2008 10:00 pm

Adriana Colindres

An estimated 30,000 Illinois felons who should have submitted samples to the state's DNA database never did, and a new program coordinated by the attorney general's office aims to fix that problem.

Improving the state's DNA database by adding those samples to the existing collection of 275,000 specimens is "incredibly important," Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a telephone news conference Wednesday.

"As much as it helps us in terms of finding offenders, it also helps us in terms of exonerating innocent people," she said. "It's a very important tool that we now have available to us, and it's one that we want to make sure is as complete as possible."

Through the new Illinois DNA Accountability Project, Madigan's office will work with law enforcement officials to get what it refers to as "missing samples" of DNA. In some instances, felons will provide samples when they get into trouble with the law again, she said. Probation officers also will be asked to help track down felons who were released from prison without submitting DNA samples.

"We don't plan on going door to door, looking for these people, at this point," she said.

Madigan said she wasn't looking to blame anybody for not collecting all of the DNA samples that were supposed to be added to the database.

"I just think that people got up and running as fast as they could, as the resources became available," she said. "Our goal here is to determine the scope of the gap in the DNA database and then to put in place a plan to eliminate that gap."

Then-Gov. George Ryan signed the "All Felons DNA" law in August 2002. It required all Illinois Department of Corrections inmates to submit a DNA specimen before their release from prison, and anyone convicted of a felony after the law's enactment also had to provide a DNA sample.

"At that time, this was a huge expansion of the existing (DNA) collection requirements, so DOC and the counties weren't ready to immediately begin taking the DNA samples," Madigan said. "Therefore, there was a lag of several months before DOC and the counties began taking samples from every felon."

The process of obtaining DNA samples has become simpler and quicker since the law first took effect, Madigan said. Initially, blood samples had to be collected from individuals. Submitting a DNA sample now requires just swab inside the cheek.

In addition to Madigan's office, others involved in the Illinois DNA Accountability Project are the Illinois Sheriffs Association, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police the Cook County state's attorney's and sheriff's offices, the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force and the Chicago Police Department. Representatives of those entities met for the first time on Wednesday.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292.

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