'No good time for you': The recordkeeping snafu keeping some Illinoisans in prison longer than they should be

A new study shows outdated technology and fragmented recordkeeping systems routinely keep people locked up in prisons nationwide longer than they’re supposed to be – including in Illinois.

The research, from the Missouri-based non-profit Unlocked Labs, examined policies in 11 jurisdictions relating to “earned time,” which allows people in prisons to reduce their sentences by earning credits for work, education or good behavior. Since 2020, Illinois and 26 other states have expanded these laws.

"What we found is that implementation—not intent—is the barrier," said Jessica Hicklin, founder and former co-executive director Unlocked Labs. "Outdated data systems, inconsistent credit calculations, and fragmented program tracking have turned a promising evidence-based reform into a patchwork of inequity and missed opportunity."

The findings confirm what WBEZ and Open Campus have been documenting in Illinois for almost two years: a system where hundreds of people in prison may be missing out on sentence reductions due to poor recordkeeping, where calculation problems have sparked hunger strikes, and where some have spent a year fighting for releases they have earned.

At least 370 lawsuits have been filed nationwide in the past decade—70 against state agencies and over 300 in federal court—alleging failures in tracking time credits, according to the report. Incarcerated individuals won about one-third of the state cases.

The Illinois Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment on the study.

The findings arrive at a critical moment when many states have expanded credit-earning opportunities faster than they've modernized the systems needed to run them. The result, the report shows, is a growing gap between what the law promises and what people inside actually receive.

The findings draw from 34 anonymized interviews with correctional professionals and formerly incarcerated people conducted in 2025. Unlocked Labs conducted the study in partnership with Arizona State University.

Time earned vs. time off a sentence

One Illinois educator told researchers about a case in which the state denied all earned time to a man who completed 12 college credits and passed all his courses. He had originally signed up for 14 credits but withdrew from a two-credit course with college approval.

But state officials rejected his application for a sentence reduction because his paperwork didn’t reflect the dropped course, the educator told researchers.

"They were like nope, you know, our paperwork said you had 14 credits, and you didn't, and you have to pass them all, and you didn't pass them all. You only passed 12, so no good time for you."

The consequences for these bureaucratic snafus aren't abstract.

Illinois offers up to six months off a sentence for earning a college or professional degree. Some incarcerated people can earn 1.5 days off their sentence for every day they participate in certain work or education programs. These credits can substantially shorten their time behind bars.

But an Illinois educator told researchers there's often confusion about whether completing a program will actually result in time off.

"We don't really know when we submit a certain number of days how that will translate to actual credit awarded," the educator said. "That's the big distinction—what's earned versus what's awarded."

A formerly incarcerated Illinoisan told researchers: "A lot of guys feel they're being deprived of earned time."

Paper records and personal archives

Most prison systems use separate databases to track program completion and sentence calculations—and the two don't talk to each other.

In Illinois, even though the prison system implemented a new digital recordkeeping system in 2010, sentence calculations are still done by hand. Records from before 2010 still exist on paper. A December 2023 internal report showed the department was aware of recordkeeping issues before a new sentence credit law went into effect in 2024. That report estimated it could take until 2029 to digitize everything needed to calculate credits accurately.

In that void, incarcerated people often build their own backup systems.

An Illinois participant described keeping multiple copies of every certificate they earned: "I keep a copy in my records, and I give a copy to my counselor, and I keep an extra duplicate [hidden away], just in case those copies come up missing."

The study also found that credits awarded can depend on which facility someone is in, which staff member handles their paperwork, and whether documentation is filed correctly—creating a geographic lottery where people serving similar sentences can receive vastly different treatment.

Implementation delays

When laws do change, the systems responsible for applying them often struggle to keep up—a problem Illinois has experienced firsthand.

Two years after Illinois' expanded earned time law went into effect, the state had reviewed sentencing credits for more than 2,000 people as of December, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Of those, 985 have been released while 1,058 remain in custody.

There have been no updates since a judge cleared the way for a lawsuit to challenge how IDOC has been calculating sentence reductions in November 2024. Attorneys for the incarcerated plaintiffs say they are still waiting for the state to turn over documents.

Charlotte West is a reporter covering higher education and employment during and after incarceration for Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. Sign up for her newsletter, College Inside.