The vitality of the community fighting for justice in the criminal legal system in Illinois is amply demonstrated by the wealth of events this fall on all aspects of that work, as highlighted with links in the sections of the website on Getting Involved and Upcoming Programs and Events.
The section of the Website on Developments in Illinois and Federal Justice contains links to information about legislative victories in the spring in reforming the Public Defender system and improving the Juvenile Justice system in Illinois, and in protecting prisoner communications from monetary exploitation by the Department of Corrections or others.
The section on Books, Reports and Articles under Other Resources includes links to new reports on:
- the success in implementing the Illinois Pretrial Justice Act in the face of an ongoing campaign fear mongering to undermine it,
- disturbing backtracking in a variety of important areas in the first 500 days of the term of Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Niell Burke, and
- ongoing monitoring of Illinois prisons by the John Howard Association in the face of continued failures of the Illinois Department of Corrections to provide adequate medical and mental health care and new policies to replace physical mail with electronic scanning,
as well as a wealth of reports issued over the past 10 years on important issues such as following the money in mass incarceration and the ongoing work to eliminate barriers to success for those returning from prison.
The section on Organizations to Support and Follow links to learning about dozens of organizations where you can get involved in advancing the cause of justice in the criminal legal system.
Thank you for exploring the resources gathered here as part of that effort.