With Cook County facing a lawsuit challenging its bail system, local community groups and attorneys gathered Tuesday to “demand alternatives to monetary bond” to help poor detainees.
Expansion of the U.S. criminal justice system over the past three decades has come with a hefty price tag: $3.4 trillion nationwide and $83 billion in Illinois, according to a new report.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is calling for a change in Illinois law so that his office can ask for bond reductions for poor, nonviolent jail detainees.
As part of his effort toward criminal justice reform in Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner says his administration will close the “F House” cell house at the Stateville Correctional Center.
The Illinois Department of Corrections and AFSCME are trading blame over the recent inmate assault against six employees at the Pontiac Correctional Center.
Four correctional officers and two lieutenants were taken to the hospital, and have since been released, after suffering non-life threatening injuries in a Sunday fight with five inmates at the Pontiac maximum-security prison.
IDOC released a statement this week saying the Pontiac incident apparently stemmed from a staff “failure to follow workplace safety procedures already in place.”
AFSCME, which represents the prison workers, responded by calling the department’s attempt to blame Pontiac employees for the altercation “shameful and baseless.”
The Illinois Department of Corrections and AFSCME are trading blame over the recent inmate assault against six employees at the Pontiac Correctional Center.