Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner recently signed bipartisan legislation to reform the asset forfeiture system in the state.

An editorial in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier discussed how the current civil asset forfeiture system has become broken, and spoke to Professor Kenworthey Bilz about the issue.

"[It] has led to truly abusive and even disgusting trends," University of Illinois law professor Kenworthy Bilz said. "Some investigations have found examples of departments spending more resources and efforts pursuing the assets of criminal offenders than pursuing the criminal offenders themselves. Some departments exacerbate the potential injustices to innocent owners by telling them that if they sign waivers agreeing not to challenge the forfeiture, the police will agree not to arrest them."

Fortunately, reform efforts will shift the burden of proving guilt back to the government. 

Full article at myjournalcourier.com.