Bill
HB 2581
Establishes an IDOC Safety Committee to enforce OSHA standards, enable unannounced inspections and removal of unsafe equipment, and publish an annual safety report.
Status (summary)
- Introduced: Feb 7, 2025 (Rep. Gregg Johnson).
- Current procedural status: Rule 19(a) / Re‑referred to Rules Committee (3/21/2025).
- Primary statutory placement: adds new sections to the Unified Code of Corrections (730 ILCS 5).
- Note: A House Committee Amendment (filed 3/5/2025) would also add a separate annual reporting requirement for the Department of Corrections.
Purpose and intent
- Establish a departmental Safety Committee within the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) to evaluate and improve workplace health and safety, ensure compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and other applicable workplace safety laws, and increase transparency through annual reporting.
Key provisions — Safety Committee (730 ILCS 5/3-2-5.1 new)
- Creation: IDOC must establish a Safety Committee of Department employees.
- Composition:
- At least 40% of members must be bargaining‑unit employees.
- The Director of Corrections appoints 60% of members (including all non‑bargaining members and up to 2 members from the International Union of Operating Engineers).
- The exclusive collective bargaining representative of the IDOC majority appoints the remaining 40%.
- The Director appoints the committee chair.
- Chair qualifications and powers:
- Chair must have professional background/training in an environmental health & safety field.
- Chair (or designee) may conduct workplace safety inspections of any IDOC property, equipment, or workplace at any time, including random unannounced inspections.
- May investigate equipment training practices, direct alternative trainings, and take equipment lacking industry‑standard safeguards out of service.
- Duties:
- Assess IDOC compliance with OSHA and other applicable workplace safety laws.
- Recommend process and procedural improvements to enhance workplace safety.
- Prepare an annual report on workplace safety efforts and future plans.
- Limits and funding:
- Jurisdiction strictly limited to OSHA and other workplace health & safety laws.
- Provisions are subject to appropriation.
House Committee Amendment (filed 3/5/2025) — departmental reporting (730 ILCS 5/3-2-15 new)
- Requires the Department to collect and publish on its website annual data, by facility, including:
- Contraband incidents (location within facility, method of entry, searches, types — drugs with test details, phones, weapons, mail, etc.), disciplinary tickets and outcomes (by facility and person).
- Substance use disorder treatment/programming availability, participation counts, and waitlist counts.
- Use of naloxone (by facility and by recipient — employee or committed person), reasons for administration, and outcomes.
- Emergency medical responses and hospitalizations (reason and outcomes).
- Overdose incidents (by facility/person, medical diagnosis or cause of death).
- The amendment seeks greater operational transparency and public reporting of safety/health incidents.
Who would be affected
- IDOC staff (bargaining and non‑bargaining), the Director of Corrections, represented unions (exclusive bargaining representative, potentially IUOE), and incarcerated/committed persons (through safety inspections, equipment removals, training changes, and data publication). Taxpayers/state budget may be affected if implementation requires new appropriations.
Potential impacts
- Strengthens employee involvement in safety oversight and may improve compliance with OSHA standards.
- Empowers an expert‑led chair to conduct unannounced inspections and remove unsafe equipment, which could prompt operational and training changes.
- Public reporting on contraband, naloxone use, overdoses, and treatment capacity could increase transparency and inform policy/oversight decisions.
- Implementation costs, data collection burdens, and possible labor-management disputes over committee scope or appointments may arise; enactment depends on available appropriations.
Next procedural steps
- Bill is pending in Rules Committee following re‑referral. If reported out, it would proceed through further floor action and possible appropriation considerations.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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