When state lawmakers in Springfield approved a spending plan in the wee hours of the morning this week, it included a $20 million injection of funds meant to shore up federal cuts that led to layoffs and forced rape crisis centers across Illinois to close.
Advocates say the lack of available counselors, advocates and rape crisis centers caused by the federal funding cuts last fiscal year led to 1,400 fewer sexual assault victims being provided services.
The news of the state funding approval comes less than a week after NBC 5 Investigates’ recent series "Dismissed" exposed how reported sexual assaults in Chicago rarely led to an arrest and conviction.
Of the more than 21,000 sex crimes reported to Chicago police between 2018 and 2023, an NBC 5 Investigates’ analysis found authorities made fewer than 1,600 arrests. Court records show hundreds of cases died on the vine while in court. All told, our investigation found just 1.5 percent of all reported sex crimes resulted in sex crime convictions with prison time.
In more than 200 other convictions filed in Cook County criminal court, we found those charged and indicted on sex charges pleaded guilty to lesser charges – non-sex-related charges like aggravated battery or kidnapping – which in some cases meant they faced little to no prison time or did not have to register as a sex offender.
The net result of this is what one expert called "case attrition," which can leave survivors feeling like their accounts of being sexually assaulted have been undermined or disregarded.
In the past year, the federal funding cuts led to the closure of five satellite rape crisis centers across Illinois, and 14 hospitals no longer have 24/7 emergency response from sexual assault advocates to support sexual assault survivors in their time of need, according to the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
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At the south suburban YWCA in Chicago Heights, Debra Perry, the Director of Advocacy and Crisis Prevention Services, told NBC 5 Investigates, “There are a lot of survivors out there not receiving services, so they don’t know what their options are."
Due to federal spending cuts to the Victims of Crime Act, which rape crisis centers rely on for funding, Perry said the YWCA was forced to lay off seven staff members and pause partnerships with area hospitals.
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Counseling waitlists that were already months long grew even longer.
“What we know is that probably over two-thirds of the rape crisis centers had to terminate at least one staff person as a result of our funding cuts," said Carrie Ward with the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
Ward estimates that because of the cuts, some 1,400 sexual assault victims went unserved in a time of need.
NBC 5 Investigates spoke with several survivors of sexual assault as part of our reporting for this series. Among them was Shelavontay Tucker, who agreed to be interviewed about her 2019 sexual assault that ended with two sexual assault charges being dropped against her ex-boyfriend, who later pleaded guilty to a single kidnapping charge.
"I had to seek counseling. I ended up being put on antidepressant and anxiety medicine. I wanted to commit suicide and I didn't know how to talk about it with my husband or anybody," Tucker said.
Tucker said her counseling helped provide her guidance at a time when all seemed lost.
Advocates like Perry and members of ICASA received an injection of good news this week, when Illinois state lawmakers approved the state’s spending plan, which included ICASA's request for $20 million for sexual assault services.
"It will mean for services where we had to let staff go, we will get those staff back. So that means for [the] counseling program, we will now have more counselors to take up the clients that are on our waiting list right now. Which is good news."
Advocates do not consider this $20 million "new money."
Instead, Perry said it will simply shore up what was lost last year. ICASA will oversee the money and advocacy agencies like the YWCA to apply for funding.
Carrie Ward with the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault said of the state budget increase: “We are incredibly appreciative that the General Assembly answered our call to invest increased state funding in sexual assault services throughout the state of Illinois. Once the budget bill is signed and we have access to the funding, ICASA will use our application and allocation policies and procedures for distributing the funds among the 31 ICASA centers."
With regards to how the money will be distributed, Ward said that will be determined in accordance with ICASA’s application review process.
"However, our intent is to use the funds as requested, to blunt the impact of the federal VOCA funding cuts … by restoring or bolstering services that were eliminated or diminished due to cuts, increasing wages for sexual assault program staff to combat the impact 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 money allocated could help stave off the impact of another loss of federal funding when American Rescue Plan Act dollars will sunset.
