Gov. Pritzker Signs Law Forbidding Deceptive Tactics By Police In Questioning Minors, Among Other Criminal Justice Reforms

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a number of criminal justice reforms into law on Thursday – including a ban on deceptive tactics when police are questioning minors.

"False confessions have played a role in far too many false convictions leading to painful and often life-altering consequences," Gov. Pritzker said Thursday.

Senate Bill 2122, one of four criminal justice reform laws Pritzker signed as part of a package Thursday, makes Illinois the first state to bar local police from using deceptive tactics when questioning young people. The use of deceptive tactics was deemed permissible by the judiciary in 1969, but the 7th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals and the Illinois Court of Appeals have condemned the practice because of the risk it poses for false confessions.

The bill goes into effect on Jan. 1 of next year.

Pritzker on Thursday also signed Senate Bill 64, which encourages the use of restorative justice practices by providing that participation in such practices will be confidential and not used in any future proceeding unless the privilege is waived.

He further signed Senate Bill 129, which allows the state's attorney of a county in which a defendant was sentence to petition for resentencing if the original sentence "no longer advances the interests of justice," and House Bill 3587, which creates a Resentencing Task Force study for ways to reduce the Illinois prison population.