People in prison perform essential work, but the 13th Amendment prevents them from being treated with dignity.
Tag: Prisons
Posted inNews & Politics
A literary mission
Chicago Books to Women in Prison partners with Women & Children First to get books behind bars.
Posted inNews & Politics
Guaranteed income offers stability to formerly incarcerated people
Many struggle to find employment because of the stigma of a criminal record. To help, one organization is offering cash.
Posted inOn Prisons
On demand, without apology
Stripping the right to abortion harms incarcerated women.
Posted inArts & Culture
‘We can imagine our way into something else’
When Anthony Holmes goes to the doctor today, he’s asked: How many heart attacks have you had? That’s because, Holmes says, the torture he faced in 1973 at the hands of then-Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge included shocking him with an electric shock box and suffocating him with plastic bags. Burge and the mostly white […]
Posted inNews
Criminalizing queerness
Bernina Mata’s attorneys say prosecutors used homophobic rhetoric to secure a death sentence in 1999. Now they’re asking the governor to set her free.
Posted inNews
Interview with podcaster Aaron Smith: ‘Get to the root of the person’
Season three of Escaping the Odds, a podcast about entrepreneurship for the formerly incarcerated, dropped Tuesday.
Posted inNews & Politics
El análisis del agua de la prisión de Stateville no cumplió con la regulación federal
En medio de una crisis de agua en una de las prisiones más grandes de Illinois, contrataron una compañía externa para analizar el agua en busca de plomo, pero no siguió las regulaciones de la EPA.
Posted inNews & Politics
Stateville prison water testing did not follow federal regulations
Amid an ongoing water crisis at one of Illinois’s largest prisons, an outside contractor was hired to test the water for lead but didn’t follow EPA regulations.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
A new, deadly COVID outbreak in an Illinois prison
An update from inside Stateville Correctional Center
Posted inNews & Politics
Most Illinois prison staff haven’t gotten COVID boosters
Fewer than one in ten prison staffers have received a booster, even as cases spike in correctional facilities across the state.
Posted inBlogs
Firm tied to Bruce Rauner profits from ‘court-sanctioned extortion’
While Illinois prisons are dangerously overcrowded, the GOP candidate for governor has made money from privatized criminal justice systems.
Posted inBlogs
With Chris Christie at his side, Bruce Rauner blames Governor Quinn for corruption and crime
Rauner, the GOP candidate for governor, also says he’s open to softening penalties for drug possession
Posted inBlogs
Could reparations for African-Americans help reduce violence?
A conversation with veteran reparations activist and political organizer Conrad Worrill.
Posted inNews & Politics
The drug warrior
Chicago DEA special agent in charge Jack Riley has targeted the Outfit, dirty cops, street gangs, and the Sinaloa cartel, yet the drugs keep coming.