Editor’s note: This story was updated at 7:54 p.m. on May 26 to include comments from the Illinois Department of Corrections. An amended lawsuit filed against Rob Jeffreys, director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week claims that the state’s prison system has failed to protect medically vulnerable prisoners from…
Joseph Horton is overwhelmed and stressed because he’s struggling to keep himself and his cell clean. Horton is incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois. He says safety measures have improved in the prisons since the pandemic began, but he says more could be done to protect inmates. “I’m in a cell with another…
CHICAGO — Disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been officially disbarred. The Illinois Supreme Court announced on Monday that it revoked Blagojevich’s law license. The announcement was not a surprise, as Blagojevich didn’t even attend a March hearing in which the matter was discussed and indicated afterward that he had no intention of practicing…
A University of Illinois college-in-prison program created a reentry guide for those released from prison and jail during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every year, the Education Justice Project updates one reentry guide to reflect the latest information about resources available to those released from prison and returning to Illinois communities, as well as another guide for…
As the coronavirus outbreak hit Illinois, many county jails lacked a standard cell needed to isolate infected inmates who had a respiratory illness, according to a review by CU-CitizenAccess and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting of annual jail inspections. The inspections, conducted in 2018 and 2019 by a division of the Illinois Department of…
URBANA – None of Champaign County’s 91 COVID-19 cases reported as of Thursday have involved staff or inmates at the County jail, according to Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman. As part of an effort to reduce the jail population during the COVID-19 pandemic, Heuerman said he’s been coordinating with local police officers to reduce jail…
URBANA – At least six men incarcerated in the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet have died after contracting COVID-19. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, 123 people incarcerated at Stateville have tested positive for the virus along with 65 staff members. Other prisons across the state have also reported cases of the virus among…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced this week that Illinois prisons would be closed to new inmates in response to growing concern about the COVID-19 pandemic spreading within Illinois’ correctional facilities. As of Sunday, at least eight incarcerated men at Stateville Correctional Center have tested positive for the virus, along with multiple staff members at the prison….
Advocates and correctional officials are calling on Illinois and other states across the country to release youth from juvenile detention facilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. There are currently about 200 youth incarcerated in Illinois’ juvenile detention facilities. A recent report from the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University found that more than 90%…
The Illinois Department of Corrections announced Friday that visitors will be temporarily barred from the state’s correctional facilities in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Prison officials say they haven’t identified any positive cases of coronavirus among staff or incarcerated people. IDOC Spokesperson Lindsey Hess says there are more than 50 men…
Update: This story was updated at 1:35 p.m. Friday, March 13, 2020 to state that the Illinois Department of Corrections is not currently testing individuals in the prison system for COVID-19. URBANA – A group of educators who work inside Illinois’ prison system are urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to release elderly and sick inmates from…
State lawmakers are reacting with alarm to a recently released email that refers to the cover-up of a quote “rape in Champaign”. State Senator Scott Bennett, a Champaign Democrat, says he was shocked and angered by the WBEZ report of a 2012 email from then-lobbyist Michael McClain to two aides in the administration of then-governor…