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Cook County commissioners consider protesters’ call to defund jail
John SeaslyHundreds of protesters called to defund the Cook County Jail on Thursday and reinvest the funds in programs that benefit Black and Brown communities. Outside the Cook County Jail on Thursday...
View ArticleActivists petition Illinois public health department to shut down Vienna prison
Activists and family members of people incarcerated in Vienna Correctional Center are calling on the Illinois Department of Public Health to shut down the minimum-security prison in southern Illinois....
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Why is the Cook County Jail population rising?
More people were locked inside the Cook County Jail on Thursday than at any point since March, according to an Injustice Watch analysis. The number of people in the jail reached a low of about 4,000 in...
View ArticleLawsuit claiming Tom Dart unlawfully detained people after they posted bond...
In February 2018, Taphia Williams was held in Cook County Jail for more than 72 hours after she had posted bond under a policy by Sheriff Tom Dart to conduct a review of anyone in the jail who was...
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Judge strikes down ban on transfers to Illinois prisons
Updated on Aug. 5 with a statement from the Illinois Department of Corrections. A Logan County judge struck down Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ban on transfers from jails to state prisons on Monday. The ruling...
View ArticlePretrial Fairness Act would make Illinois the first state to abolish cash bail
Update: The Pretrial Fairness Act passed the Illinois General Assembly on Jan. 13. It now awaits the governor’s signature before becoming law. A bill introduced this week would make Illinois the only...
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The way prisoners flag guard abuse, inadequate health care and unsanitary...
Hokyoung Kim for ProPublica ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to get weekly updates about our work. This article was produced by ProPublica...
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Covid-19 hospitalizations at Illinois corrections department leave...
Photo by Davon ClarkCynthia McDonald, holding a portrait of her son, Joseph Wilson. Cynthia McDonald’s son Joseph Wilson contracted Covid-19 in late March while serving a life sentence for first-degree...
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Las hospitalizaciones por Covid-19 en el Departamento de Correccionales de...
Foto por Davon Clark Este artículo, publicado originalmente en inglés por Injustice Watch, está disponible en español gracias al proyecto “Traduciendo las noticias de Chicago”, del Instituto de...
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Should incarcerated people get early access to Covid-19 vaccines? Illinois...
A nurse at Saint Anthony Hospital draws a dose Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, of the first of the two Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations for a hospital worker at the facility in Chicago. (AP...
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The New Way Forward Act could disrupt the prison-to-deportation pipeline
ScreenshotRep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia discusses the New Way Forward Act during a virtual press conference, January 26, 2020. A group of congressional Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia of...
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Deaths in custody: Under Illinois’ criminal justice overhaul, prisons must...
Illinois prisons and jails will soon be required to notify families when their incarcerated loved ones die. As part of the sweeping criminal justice overhaul now awaiting Governor J.B. Pritzker’s...
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Illinois criminal justice reform ends cash bail, changes felony murder rule
Photo courtesy of Rep. Sonya M. HarperIllinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs criminal justice reform package into law, making Illinois among the first to eliminate the use of cash bail. (Photo courtesy of...
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Over 200,000 people are serving life in U.S. prisons. These are the...
More than 200,000 people are serving life sentences in U.S. prisons today, and most of them are locked in state correctional facilities. The vast majority of lifers are people of color, about 30% are...
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How photos helped incarcerated mothers survive the pandemic in prison
Courtesy of Antu’Nesha TaylorAntu’Nesha Taylor and her mother Sharonda Miller in 1999, on her first birthday. Miller was arrested for the murder of Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Jett when Taylor...
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Illinois bill would expand civics and voter education to incarcerated youths...
Illinois stands on the cusp of expanding voting and civics education to young people incarcerated at the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice who are older than 17 and within a year of their release...
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Cook County Jail begins demolishing vacant dormitories to make way for...
Block Club Chicago originally published this story. You can subscribe to Block Club Chicago’s neighborhood reporting by clicking here. BlockClub ChicagoCook County officials began demolishing two...
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Cook County sheriff takes state officials to court over stalled prison transfers
risingthermals, via FlickrA protestor stands outside the Cook County Jail, June 13, 2020. Update (Oct. 1): The Illinois Supreme Court denied taking up Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s petition Thursday....
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Chicago may finally pay $1 million to estate of man cops killed in botched...
City of Chicago/Civilian Office of Police AccountabilityVideo footage from the scene of an attempted burglary in Little Village on April 30, 2012, where police fired at least 75 bullets at a getaway...
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Thousands of women are serving life in U.S. prisons. Their history of trauma...
AP Photo/Seth PerlmanLogan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Ill., is one of two women’s prisons in the state. As of June 30, 2021, it held 93 women serving life or “virtual life” sentences of 50 years...
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