Dear Friends, The 102nd General Assembly swore in new legislators on January 13, 2021 and began meeting that month. As of mid-June, legislators concluded business for this year’s regular session. During the session, members of the General Assembly introduced 7,004 bills. Of those bills, 664 passed through...
Formerly Incarcerated Men Share Why They’re Getting Vaccinated Fred Weatherspon received his second and final dose of the COVID-19 in January. “I want to protect myself,” Fred said. “I knew, if given the opportunity, I would take it.” Fred didn’t experience the side effects some people do....
Dear Friends, It has been 10 months and counting since the onset of COVID-19 and statewide quarantine policies. Please know we think about you all the time, we care about the conditions inside prisons, and we are working as hard as we can to address some...
Incarcerated people are dying because some facilities within the Illinois Department of Corrections seem to be denying testing or treatment for COVID-19. While we welcome Illinois’s recent announcement that people who are incarcerated in three facilities will be regularly tested, we’re disturbed it took so many...
Most regions in Illinois are in Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan. Bars, restaurants, gyms, and salons are open throughout the state, but thousands of incarcerated people still have no indication of when they might see their families or meet with their lawyers, or...
This chart shows the number of COVID-19 tests each state has performed in prisons, as of November 25. Testing people who are incarcerated is essential to preventing the spread of the virus in prisons and in communities at large. Illinois does not publicly release the...
Governor JB Pritzker must address persistent racial inequities in the Illinois criminal legal system, including with COVID-19 early prison releases. ...
When a person in Illinois is convicted of certain crimes, up to twenty-five years may be added to their sentence if a firearm was used to commit the offense. In some cases, firearm enhancements can even exceed the punishment for the underlying crime. Punishing firearm crimes...
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