Illinois Rep. Slaughter’s opioid antagonist and reentry support bill passes House and Senate

Passed bill authored by State Rep. Justin Slaughter aims to provide opioid antagonists to certain released prisoners and support their reintegration through Medicaid assistance and access to essential resources, according to the Illinois General Assembly.

In the House, 69 Democrats and three Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while five Democrats and 37 Republicans opposed it.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, 36 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while two Democrats and one Republican voted against it.

Slaughter introduced the bill in the Illinois House on Feb. 7, 2025 during the 104th session.

The legislation, known as HB3662, was passed on June 1, 2025 during the general assembly session 104.

According to the Illinois General Assembly site, the legislature summarized the bill’s official text as follows: “Amends the County Department of Corrections Division of the Counties Code, the Unified Code of Corrections, and the County Jail Act. Provides that, upon the release of a prisoner or committed person from a county correctional institution, county jail, or Department of Corrections correctional institution or facility, the sheriff, warden, or Department shall provide the prisoner or committed person with an opioid antagonist if the prisoner was incarcerated for drug-related charges or was identified as having a substance abuse disorder.”

The following is our breakdown, based on the actual bill text, and may include interpretation to clarify its provisions.

In essence, this bill mandates that, upon the release of a prisoner from a correctional facility or jail in Illinois, the relevant authority—whether a sheriff or warden—must provide an opioid antagonist if the individual was incarcerated due to drug-related charges or identified as having a substance abuse disorder. Additionally, the bill specifies several post-release administrative actions, including assisting individuals in applying for Medicaid, providing them with vital information to support reintegration such as voter registration forms, medical care options, job listings, and housing resources. Effective dates for specific provisions are mentioned, with focus for implementation details left to the Department’s discretion.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Curtis J. Tarver, II (Democrat-25th District), Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid (Democrat-21st District), and Rep. Camille Y. Lilly (Democrat-78th District), along with eight other sponsors.

Bills in Illinois follow a multi-step legislative process, beginning with introduction in either the House or Senate, followed by committee review, floor debates, and votes in both chambers before reaching the governor for approval or veto. The General Assembly operates on a biennial schedule, and while typically thousands of bills are introduced each session, only a fraction successfully pass through the process to become law.

You can read more about bills and other measures here.

Slaughter graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA.

Slaughter, a Democrat, was elected to the Illinois State House in 2017 to represent the state’s 27th House District, replacing previous state representative Monique D. Davis.

While the final vote determined the bill’s passage, lawmakers in both chambers held additional votes related to concurrences. These earlier votes are included below for context.