Women in jail represent the fastest growing prisoner population in the United States, increasing 14-fold between 1970 and 2014. One consequence of this exponential rise is the increase in the number of pregnant women who are confined. In early 2014, Sandy Robles was one such woman, held at Milwaukee County Jail (MCJ) in Wisconsin. Incarcerated for a… Read More
On Tuesday, August 21, incarcerated people across the United States and Canada began a 19-day strike in response to the riot at Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina and to call out the horrendous conditions they face in prison facilities. The Lee Correctional Institution incident took place on April 15 and resulted in seven deaths… Read More
EAST ST. LOUIS, IL — In a verdict virtually without precedent in Illinois, late yesterday a federal jury found three prison guards and a Department of Corrections nurse personally liable for over $250,000 in punitive damages for an incident in which a handcuffed prisoner at Menard Correctional Center was beaten up and denied access to… Read More
City is Defying FOIA Law by Refusing to Release Videos This morning a Cook County judge will hold a hearing to determine if the Chicago Police Department should be forced under the Illinois Freedom Of Information Act to release all videos surrounding the controversial July 14th police killing of South Shore barber Harith “Snoop” Augustus,… Read More
Video poking holes in the police version of events is available here. WICHITA, KS, 8/9/2018 – The family of 24-year-old Matthew Holmes, beaten and shot to death last August by a county sheriff’s deputy, and then beaten further while he lay dying, sued the McPherson and Harvey County, Kansas Sheriff’s Departments, City of Newton, and… Read More
Lawsuits allege code of silence and come in the wake of the first mass exoneration in Chicago history This morning fifteen men whose convictions were overturned each filed separate lawsuits against the City of Chicago, high-ranking supervisors with the Chicago Police Department (CPD), recently imprisoned former Chicago police sergeant Ronald Watts, and members of Watts’… Read More
CPD is refusing to release any further videos despite releasing its version of events and a partial edited video. CHICAGO – Civil rights activist William Calloway this morning sued the Chicago Police to compel the public release of all videos of the July 14th police shooting of South Shore barber Harith “Snoop” Augustus. CPD has… Read More
Krystal O’Connell lost her 17-month-old son in accidental death while cared for by a babysitter, then suffered the additional trauma of wrongful imprisonment DENVER – An Alamosa County woman who was wrongly imprisoned for a decade after her infant died in an accident, today filed a suit in federal court against the cop and caseworker… Read More
As Mother’s Day approaches, let’s again remember all of the moms behind bars and all of the children who can’t be with their mothers due to our country’s mass incarceration injustice. To support these women and be heard as a voice against this oppressive system, please consider supporting one of the National Bail Outs happening… Read More
By Josh Burday This article was originally published in Law360 Imagine Chicago wins the bid for Amazon’s second headquarters. Flip a coin. Heads — the second headquarters brings in thousands of jobs benefiting the economy for years with little downside. Tails — Amazon’s new headquarters is the second coming of Chicago’s infamous parking meter deal,[1]… Read More
