Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Carlos Ballesteros | Injustice Watch2023-09-01T09:15:24.903-05:00https://chicago.suntimes.com/authors/carlos-ballesteros-njustice-watch/rss2023-09-01T09:15:24.903-05:002023-09-01T09:15:26-05:00Dying, disabled prisoners in Illinois not being freed despite law calling for medical release, as Illinois Prisoner Review Board denies requests
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<img class="Image" alt="Joe Coleman (right), seen getting an award from warden Thomas F. Page at the Menard Correctional Center, was a decorated Army veteran who died of prostate cancer while in prison. An&nbsp;Illinois law named for him allows prisoners&nbsp;to request early release if they’re terminally ill and expected to die within 18 months or if they’re medically incapacitated and need help with more than one activity of daily living, such as eating or using the bathroom. " srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f9df48c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1489x836+0+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FD3nL3H00C0pNupKrJEfx-WS3u58%3D%2F0x0%3A1489x1149%2F1489x1149%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28697x410%3A698x411%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F19267707%2FJoe_Coleman.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3a00f29/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1489x836+0+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FD3nL3H00C0pNupKrJEfx-WS3u58%3D%2F0x0%3A1489x1149%2F1489x1149%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28697x410%3A698x411%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F19267707%2FJoe_Coleman.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Joe Coleman (right), seen getting an award from warden Thomas F. Page at the Menard Correctional Center, was a decorated Army veteran who died of prostate cancer while in prison. An Illinois law named for him allows prisoners to request early release if they’re terminally ill and expected to die within 18 months or if they’re medically incapacitated and need help with more than one activity of daily living, such as eating or using the bathroom.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Illinois Prison Project</p></div></div>
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<p>Phillip Merritt’s dementia is so advanced he’s lost the ability to speak. But with the help of his cellmates at Western Illinois Correctional Center, Merritt, 71, still manages to get on the phone with his brother every few weeks.</p><p>“He has to have someone call me, and then I don’t know what to say to him because he can’t understand anything, so I’ll just talk,” Michael Merritt said. “All he can say are two words. … I mean, he’s just gone.”</p><p>Phillip Merritt’s deteriorating condition makes him a prime candidate to get out of prison under the Joe Coleman Medical Release Act, an Illinois law touted by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other Democrats as a way to reduce the “staggering” costs of caring for ailing people in prison and reunite families with frail loved ones.</p><p>Under the law — named for Joe Coleman, a decorated Army veteran who died of prostate cancer while incarcerated — Illinois prisoners can request early release if they’re terminally ill and expected to die within 18 months, or if they’re medically incapacitated and need help with more than one activity of daily living, such as eating or using the bathroom.</p><p>But a year and a half since the law took effect, far fewer prisoners have been released than expected as the medical release process has become mired in the politics of criminal justice reform in the post-George Floyd era, an investigation by Injustice Watch and WBEZ has found.</p><p>Behind the lower-than-expected numbers is the <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/7/2/22558020/illinois-prisoner-review-board-ray-larsen-parole-revoked-frank-casolari-c-number-inmates" target="_blank" >Illinois Prisoner Review Board,</a> a <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/springfield" target="_blank" >state agency</a> whose members are appointed by Pritzker that has the final say on medical release requests. As of mid-August, the board has denied nearly two-thirds of medical release requests from dying and disabled prisoners who met the medical criteria to get out of prison — including Phillip Merritt.</p><p>“I couldn’t believe it,” his brother said. “How could they deny him? He can’t even talk.”</p><p>More than half of the 89 denied applicants were older than 60. Most had spent at least 15 years behind bars.</p><p>At least two died in prison, including an 81-year-old who’d been incarcerated for more than three decades and was scheduled to be released in 2025. </p><p>Another man died five days before the board denied his request.</p><p>The Prisoner Review Board has granted 52 medical releases — a rate of less than three releases per month since it began voting on those requests, records show.</p><p>Advocates say the board is undermining the Coleman Act and forcing ill-equipped prison staffs to care for dying and disabled prisoners, even those with families practically begging to take them off their hands.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Jennifer Soble, founder and executive director of the Illinois Prison Project, at her downtown office." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3213ea1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8192x4598+0+433/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FEWt_ZWpn09liH4j_8SxSdY7HsNk%3D%2F0x0%3A8192x5464%2F8192x5464%2Ffilters%3Afocal%284096x2732%3A4097x2733%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24881706%2F20230818_Jennifer_Soble_mm0227.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/aadd964/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8192x4598+0+433/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FEWt_ZWpn09liH4j_8SxSdY7HsNk%3D%2F0x0%3A8192x5464%2F8192x5464%2Ffilters%3Afocal%284096x2732%3A4097x2733%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24881706%2F20230818_Jennifer_Soble_mm0227.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Jennifer Soble, founder and executive director of the Illinois Prison Project, at her downtown office. “Our prison system is now completely overburdened by people who pose absolutely no risk to public safety but are tremendously expensive to care for,” says Soble, who was the lead author of the Joe Coleman Medical Release Act. </p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Manuel Martinez / WBEZ</p></div></div>
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</div><p>“Our prison system is now completely overburdened by people who pose absolutely no risk to public safety but are tremendously expensive to care for,” said Jennifer Soble, lead author of the Coleman Act and executive director of the <a class="Link" href="https://www.illinoisprisonproject.org/about#Work" target="_blank" >Illinois Prison Project,</a> a nonprofit legal group that represents dozens of medical release applicants. “From a cost-saving perspective, from a government-efficiency perspective and truly from a moral perspective, we need to be doing something differently here.”</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>Donald Shelton, chair of the Prisoner Review Board, declined an interview request. In a written statement, he said: “Each case that comes before the board comes with its own set of circumstances to be studied and evaluated by members. Due diligence is given by the board to every person who sets a petition before them.”</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s March 13 announcement of state board appointments including that of Donald Shelton to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/aa7b7ae/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1383x776+146+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FV6whWrMniYuvE5a8ENkASdw17nc%3D%2F0x0%3A1674x776%2F1674x776%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28837x388%3A838x389%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24881931%2FScreenshot_2023_08_29_at_12.57.22_PM.png 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b5582c5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1383x776+146+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FV6whWrMniYuvE5a8ENkASdw17nc%3D%2F0x0%3A1674x776%2F1674x776%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28837x388%3A838x389%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24881931%2FScreenshot_2023_08_29_at_12.57.22_PM.png 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s March 13 announcement of state board appointments including that of Donald Shelton to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p></p><h3>Medical releases could save millions</h3><p>It’s unclear exactly how many of Illinois’ nearly 30,000 prisoners could qualify for medical release. Under the Coleman Act, the Illinois Department of Corrections is required to keep track of that number, but department officials said they don’t have it yet. A spokesperson said the data would be published by year’s end.</p><p>What is clear, from <a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/prisons-and-jails/2021/health-care-illinois-prisons-monitor-report/" target="_blank" >years of scathing reports</a> from an independent monitor appointed by a federal judge, is that Illinois prisons are unfit to provide health care for the thousands of aging, disabled and incapacitated prisoners.</p><p>Half of the state’s prison medical staff jobs are currently vacant, including 80% of physician positions. Prisoners with mobility issues suffer bedsores and frequent falls because no one is around to care for them. Some are left sitting in their own waste, according to the monitor’s reports.</p><p>“Prescriptions go unrenewed, cancers go undiagnosed. In the worst cases, as everyone here knows, people die painful deaths because of the lack of care,” attorney Camille Bennett with the ACLU of Illinois said at <a class="Link" href="https://www.wbez.org/stories/lawmakers-asked-to-fire-illinois-private-prison-health-care-company/e0b75637-ed60-4a2d-ada6-5bdaabc918f2" target="_blank" >a recent hearing on health care in state prisons</a>.</p><p>Even this substandard care is expensive. Illinois paid $250 million in its latest budget year to Wexford Health Sources, the for-profit company contracted to provide health care to state prisoners, according to state records.</p><p>Wexford’s 10-year contract expired in 2021, but <a class="Link" href="https://www.wbez.org/stories/wexfords-health-contract-in-illinois-prisons-expired/37652269-67e1-47c5-a4b1-a1904caea1be" target="_blank" >the company continues providing care as Illinois seeks new bidders</a>. </p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
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<p>Experts said releasing more people under the Coleman Act could bring down the cost of prison health care.</p><p>“The more prisoners there are who are medically needy, the higher the cost of caring for them, and the higher the bids will be,” said Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/336d3ff/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4097x2299+0+161/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FoheR0J2OK0ktzOXorFELaKCK8fg%3D%2F0x0%3A4097x2622%2F4097x2622%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282049x1311%3A2050x1312%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24882084%2Fmerlin_107613064.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/463c6cf/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4097x2299+0+161/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FoheR0J2OK0ktzOXorFELaKCK8fg%3D%2F0x0%3A4097x2622%2F4097x2622%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282049x1311%3A2050x1312%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24882084%2Fmerlin_107613064.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Brian Rich / Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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</div><p>If the Prisoner Review Board approved more medical releases, the cost savings for taxpayers in the long term could be in the millions, Mills said.</p><p>Daniel Conn, chief executive of Wexford Health Sources, did not respond to an interview request. Questions sent to a Wexford spokesperson went unanswered. </p><p>LaToya Hughes, acting director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, declined to comment.</p><p>There are other, more immediate savings for Illinois taxpayers if more ailing prisoners were released, Mills said. A <a class="Link" href="https://spac.icjia-api.cloud/uploads/2023%20Update%20-%20Marginal%20Costs%20for%20Fiscal%20Impacts-20230210T16344761.pdf" target="_blank" >recent government report</a> showed Illinois spends more than $76,000, on average, to incarcerate a single person for a year. Experts say terminally ill and incapacitated prisoners are much more expensive to care for. Prisoners whose medical needs can’t be met in prison infirmaries are escorted to and from hospitals by guards. With prisons short-staffed, officers already routinely require overtime pay. </p><p>By not releasing more ailing prisoners, the Prisoner Review Board makes it harder for prison medical staffers to care for everyone else, Mills said. </p><p>“What limited resources we have are being devoted to people who are most seriously mentally or physically ill, and that doesn’t leave any health care for anybody else at all,” he said.</p><p>The overburdened health care system also blocks more prisoners from getting out under the Coleman Act. Prisoners must be found qualified for medical release by a prison doctor or nurse before the board votes on their case. But prisoners often wait weeks or months to know whether they qualify, records show. In one case, a prisoner at Illinois River Correctional Center waited 152 days before finding out he didn’t qualify for release, records show.</p><p>Prison medical staffers have said 240 prisoners who applied were unqualified for medical release. At least a handful of those prisoners lived in a prison infirmary, used wheelchairs or had terminal diseases including end-stage liver disease, and at least three died in prison, records show.</p><p>There are other frail and disabled prisoners who don’t see a doctor on a regular basis, “so there’s no way for the doctors to know about their condition,” Soble said.</p><p>Michael Merritt said his brother hasn’t received proper medical treatment in prison for years, and he’s afraid of what could happen as his dementia worsens. </p><p>Phillip Merritt should be allowed to die at home, where his family can take turns caring for him, instead of in a prison cell, where he’s unsure whether there’s anyone to properly look after him, his brother said.</p><p>“I don’t know what the problem is,” Michael Merritt said. “They know they can’t take care of him in there the way he is supposed to be taken care of.” </p><p>The Prisoner Review Board didn’t tell Merritt why it denied his brother a medical release. The board’s deliberations happen behind closed doors, and the law doesn’t require them to provide an explanation.</p><h3>Republicans in on votes more often</h3><p>Shelton said members weigh many factors when voting on medical release requests, primarily focusing on applicants’ prior convictions, where they plan to live if released and testimony from victims of their crimes. </p><p>Under state law, the board is <a class="Link" href="https://govappointments.illinois.gov/boardsandcommissions/details/?id=db13cb5e-2007-ee11-8f6d-001dd8068008" target="_blank" >required to be split roughly evenly between Democrats and Republicans</a>. The 12 current members include former law enforcement officials, educators, attorneys and counselors. Pritzker appoints all of the board members, who then must be confirmed by the Illinois Senate.</p><p>Medical release requests are decided by panels of three board members. At least two must agree for a request to be approved or denied. </p><p>Shelton said board members are “chosen randomly” for the panels. So far, though, Republicans have cast more votes in medical release cases than Democrats — and they are much more likely to vote to deny those requests, an analysis of voting data shows.</p><p>Three of the four board members with the highest denial rates — Jared Bohland, Kenneth Tupy and LeAnn Miller — are Republicans. Each voted to deny release in more than 70% of the cases they heard, and each voted on more than one-third of all medical release requests.</p><p>Bohland and Tupy, along with Democrat Matthew Coates, were on the panel that denied Phillip Merrit’s medical release request in July. They voted to deny six out of seven requests that day, records show.</p><p>A month earlier, Bohland was part of another panel, this time with two other Democrats, hearing the case of Saul Colbert, 82. Like Merritt, Colbert developed dementia while serving time for armed robbery. Both had previous violent convictions — Merritt for attempted murder, Colbert for murder. Both had family ready to take them in. And both were represented by the same attorney with the Illinois Prison Project. But the board voted 2-1 to release Colbert, with Bohland voting against.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-center><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-3b0000" name="module-3b0000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Republican members’ higher denial rates </div>
<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h3>Republican members’ higher denial rates</h3><br>The percentage of votes cast against early release among current Illinois Prisoner Review Board members and their party affiliations.<br><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Bar chart showing Republican members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board tend, on average, to vote more than Democratic members to deny early release to prisoners seeking release under the Coleman Act for medical reasons." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1622704/2147483647/strip/true/crop/902x506+64+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FAq8LVsvV7r6E73RIUjvQByixK1Y%3D%2F0x0%3A1030x506%2F1030x506%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28515x253%3A516x254%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24883850%2FScreenshot_2023_08_30_at_8.04.18_AM.png 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/779048e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/902x506+64+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FAq8LVsvV7r6E73RIUjvQByixK1Y%3D%2F0x0%3A1030x506%2F1030x506%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28515x253%3A516x254%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24883850%2FScreenshot_2023_08_30_at_8.04.18_AM.png 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Data as of Aug. 15. Krystal Tison (independent) and Darryldean Goff (Democrat) aren’t shown because they joined the board in May and hadn’t voted or had voted in just one case by that date. <strong>Sources:</strong> Illinois Department of Corrections, governor’s office</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Amy Qin / WBEZ</p></div></div>
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</div><p>“The only difference between those cases was the panel,” Soble said.</p><p>Through a spokesperson, Bohland, Tupy and Miller declined to discuss their voting records.</p><p>Lisa Daniels, a former board member and restorative justice practitioner, said she thinks some of her former colleagues are ideologically against letting anyone out of prison early.</p><p>They “simply believe that a person should complete the entirety of their sentence no matter the circumstances they present in their petition, no matter how that person may have shown themselves to be redeemed and no matter [whether they’re] no longer a threat to public safety,” Daniels said.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Lisa Daniels, a former Illinois Prisoner Review Board member." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/cd3ce00/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1626x913+0+96/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FdL8L2KSXro84E_aH0yXBZMB2pyg%3D%2F0x0%3A1626x1104%2F1626x1104%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28813x552%3A814x553%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24882162%2FScreenshot_2023_08_29_at_2.14.17_PM.png 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4a1185e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1626x913+0+96/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FdL8L2KSXro84E_aH0yXBZMB2pyg%3D%2F0x0%3A1626x1104%2F1626x1104%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28813x552%3A814x553%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24882162%2FScreenshot_2023_08_29_at_2.14.17_PM.png 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Lisa Daniels, a former Illinois Prisoner Review Board member.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>CSPAN 2</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Daniels resigned from the board in January, <a class="Link" href="https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/state/2022/03/29/illinois-prisoner-review-board-member-resigns-senate-rejects-another/7204929001/" target="_blank" >one of eight Democrats to step down or fail to be reappointed since 2021</a>. In the past few years, the state Republican Party has turned the board into a new front in the debate over criminal justice reform. </p><p>Democrats, who have a super-majority in the Senate, haven’t mustered enough support among their own ranks to get all of Pritzker’s appointments through, leaving the board with three vacant seats.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Gov. J.B. Pritzker." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2fa2432/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6123x3436+0+323/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FIzwwWjs0trO_SKTEAtHlcfTBAQ8%3D%2F0x0%3A6123x4082%2F6123x4082%2Ffilters%3Afocal%283062x2041%3A3063x2042%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24882122%2Fmerlin_107405634.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fe401f9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6123x3436+0+323/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FIzwwWjs0trO_SKTEAtHlcfTBAQ8%3D%2F0x0%3A6123x4082%2F6123x4082%2Ffilters%3Afocal%283062x2041%3A3063x2042%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24882122%2Fmerlin_107405634.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Gov. J.B. Pritzker.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Pritzker declined an interview request. But, speaking at a news conference Thursday, he said, “The Coleman Act is, in fact, being carried out as it should be.”</p><p>The governor acknowledged that some medical release applicants “really can’t function” and are unlikely to commit another crime if released but said, “Just because the person is ill doesn’t mean that there aren’t factors that are being considered and need to be considered about a case and whether somebody should be released or not.”</p><p>But that runs counter to the law’s intent, according to Soble.</p><p>“The eligibility conditions are extremely strict and narrowly tailored to apply to only the sickest and most expensive people in the prison healthcare system,” she said. “With that in mind, almost every eligible person should be released if we are to realize the Coleman Act’s purpose.”</p><h3>Law ‘failed to live up to its promise’</h3><p>The day Pritzker signed the Coleman Act, its main sponsor, state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, <a class="Link" href="https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.23775.html#:~:text=%22By%20signing%20the%20Joe%20Coleman,%2C%22%20said%20Governor%20JB%20Pritzker." target="_blank" >said the law would transform Illinois’ prison system</a> and allow families to properly say goodbye to loved ones.</p><p>“I’m sorry we couldn’t afford this mercy to Joe Coleman, but I’m proud that we’ll be able to do so for hundreds of other Illinoisans,” Guzzardi said.</p><p>Criminal justice reformers celebrated the Coleman Act as a model for other states. In a report last year, FAMM, a prominent national advocacy group, said the Coleman Act was one of the strongest “compassionate release” laws in the country.</p><p>So far, though, it has “failed to live up to its promise,” said Mary Price, FAMM’s general counsel and the report’s author.</p><p>Advocates want lawmakers to institute changes to the Coleman Act to encourage the Prisoner Review Board to release more people — among them requiring board members to visit prison infirmaries to see the state of prison health care. They want the board to get more training on how to evaluate the medical conditions of prisoners applying for release.</p><p>Advocates want the state to provide prisoners who are applying for medical release with an attorney to argue their case. Guzzardi said he’ll introduce a bill to do that in the fall veto session.</p><p>Lawmakers also should allow prisoners to reapply for medical release sooner than currently allowed, said William Nissen, a white-shoe-lawyer-turned-pro-bono-attorney for prisoners who has worked on a handful of medical release requests.</p><p>Prisoners denied medical release have to wait six months before they can reapply unless they get an exemption from the board. Shelton has approved three of 10 such requests so far, according to figures provided by the board’s chief legal counsel.</p><p>“If you’re representing a terminally ill person, then a large part of their remaining life is gone before you can even apply again,” Nissen said.</p><p>Nissen said lawmakers should also require the board to explain why they denied a medical release to “instill a certain amount of discipline in the decision-making process.” If board members have to articulate their reason for denying someone release, maybe they’ll reconsider the decision, he said.</p><p>Phillip Merritt’s attorney is in the process of refiling his client’s medical release request. </p><p>Michael Merritt said he hasn’t been able to reach his brother in three weeks. The cellmate who helped facilitate their calls apparently was transferred.</p><p>But Merritt said he’s certain he and his family can give his brother a more humane sendoff than any prison could.</p><p>“At least, he could go peacefully,” he said.<br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/8/30/23850747/prisoners-joe-coleman-medical-release-act-illinois-prisoner-review-boardCarlos Ballesteros | Injustice WatchShannon Heffernan | WBEZAmy Qin2023-02-25T05:30:00-06:002023-02-27T12:51:18-06:00U visas: Illinois DCFS blocking undocumented survivors of child abuse from applying for visas allowing them to stay in U.S.
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<img class="Image" alt="Immigration lawyer Sara Dady, who says of DCFS’s inaction on U visa certification requests: “They are defying state law.”" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/88d181f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4932x2768+0+217/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FYbRChBrlBDkXajIn5126F7yz9yk%3D%2F0x0%3A4932x3946%2F4932x3946%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282365x1601%3A2366x1602%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24453703%2FSara_Dady_101.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/563977a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4932x2768+0+217/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FYbRChBrlBDkXajIn5126F7yz9yk%3D%2F0x0%3A4932x3946%2F4932x3946%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282365x1601%3A2366x1602%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24453703%2FSara_Dady_101.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Immigration lawyer Sara Dady on DCFS’s inaction on U visa certification requests: “They are defying state law.”</p></figcaption></div>
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<p>Illinois’ state child welfare agency for years has been illegally blocking undocumented survivors of child abuse from seeking a special visa for crime victims that would allow them to remain in the United States, an Injustice Watch investigation has found.</p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-floatRight><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-170000" name="module-170000"></a>
<div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">La Voz Sidebar</div>
<div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><br><i>Lea este artículo en español en </i><a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/la-voz/" target="_blank" ><i>La Voz Chicago</i></a>, <i>la sección bilingüe del Sun-Times.</i><br><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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</div><p>Since 2019, state law has required the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and all law enforcement agencies to make a decision <a class="Link" href="https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3916&ChapterID=2" target="_blank" >within 90 business days</a> on whether undocumented immigrant applicants who have been victims of certain crimes and are applying for a type of permanent visa called a “U visa” are eligible.</p><p>That visa program was set up to help law enforcement gain the trust of undocumented immigrants who might otherwise be reluctant to come forward.</p><p>But records show that DCFS so far has taken more than four years to establish a process to review the applications, potentially denying hundreds of families a chance at legal immigration status and keeping others from even trying.</p><p>“They are defying state law, and it’s really frustrating,” said Sara Dady, a Rockford immigration lawyer who filed a U visa certification request this year on behalf of a client.</p><p>“So I have to tell my client that, under the law, we should get a response within 90 business days, but this particular government agency has decided that they’re just not capable of following the law,” Dady said.</p><p>Marc Smith, the director of DCFS, wouldn’t agree to an interview, and his office didn’t respond to questions about why it hasn’t developed a policy on U visa certification requests.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Marc Smith, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7f2063c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5498x3086+0+421/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FfWvitR-n0UWhPl8kXmEc4OJZj7U%3D%2F0x0%3A5498x3927%2F5498x3927%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282749x1964%3A2750x1965%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24372712%2FDCFS_05XX19_06.JPG 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d162354/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5498x3086+0+421/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FfWvitR-n0UWhPl8kXmEc4OJZj7U%3D%2F0x0%3A5498x3927%2F5498x3927%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282749x1964%3A2750x1965%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24372712%2FDCFS_05XX19_06.JPG 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Marc Smith, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times file</p></div></div>
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</div><p>In December, <a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/immigration/2022/chicago-police-u-visa-denials/" target="_blank" >Injustice Watch reported</a> that the Chicago Police Department routinely denied hundreds of U visa certification requests, often without justification. That report prompted Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s civil rights division to <a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/immigration/2023/u-visa-attorney-general-investigation/" target="_blank" >open an investigation</a> of the police department. Raoul’s office says it’s now also “looking into” DCFS’s handling of U visa certification requests.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
<div class="RelatedList-title">Related</div>
<ul class="RelatedList-items">
<li class="RelatedList-items-item">
<a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/immigration/2023/u-visa-attorney-general-investigation/" target="_blank" >Illinois attorney general investigating Chicago police over U visa denials</a>
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<p>Interviews with immigration lawyers and clients and DCFS emails and correspondence show undocumented immigrants who applied for the certifications were told their applications weren’t being considered.</p><p>One case involves a 37-year old who was sexually abused by her grandfather for years when she was a preteen. She reported the abuse to a school social worker, who notified DCFS, which, records show, investigated and substantiated her accusations. </p><p>The agency referred the case to the police, but her grandfather later was convicted in a separate abuse case in which she had no involvement — meaning DCFS was the only law enforcement agency able to certify her U visa application.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Attorney Carlos Becerra, who sent DCFS a woman’s request in November for a U visa certification and was told: “We are currently developing a U Visa Policy for DCFS; therefore, we are unable to confirm the information you provided nor are we able to provide a signed certification at this time.” After he pressed, he was told. “The best I can say is that we are hopeful to have it up and running in 2023.”" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2e8819d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3858x2165+0+683/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FjC_S4Dw37V_xJenXj7T-jsiwtF8%3D%2F0x0%3A3858x3532%2F3858x3532%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281929x1766%3A1930x1767%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24453668%2FBECERRA_027__2_.JPG 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/51512af/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3858x2165+0+683/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FjC_S4Dw37V_xJenXj7T-jsiwtF8%3D%2F0x0%3A3858x3532%2F3858x3532%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281929x1766%3A1930x1767%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24453668%2FBECERRA_027__2_.JPG 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Attorney Carlos Becerra, who sent DCFS a woman’s request in November for a U visa certification and was told: “We are currently developing a U Visa Policy for DCFS; therefore, we are unable to confirm the information you provided nor are we able to provide a signed certification at this time.” After he pressed, he was told. “The best I can say is that we are hopeful to have it up and running in 2023.”</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Carlos Becerra, her lawyer, sent DCFS her certification request in November. Three days later, Rodrigo Remolina, who identified himself as a member of the “DCFS U Visa Unit,” wrote back: “We are currently developing a U Visa Policy for DCFS; therefore, we are unable to confirm the information you provided nor are we able to provide a signed certification at this time.” </p><p>“Can you tell me approximately how long it will take to develop the policy?” Becerra asked.</p><p>“Unfortunately I don’t have a date but I can tell you we are working on it diligently,” Remolina said in late November. “The best I can say is that we are hopeful to have it up and running in 2023.”</p><p>In mid-January, Remolina wrote to Dady’s office in emails in another case: “Although we already have a dedicated email for U-Visa, we do not yet have any policy or even an established process to certify U-Visa requests. We are working on it and hope to have this service up and running in the next few months. </p><p>“Please check back with us later this summer.” </p><p>Becerra filed suit against DCFS on behalf of the 37-year-old Chicago woman in Cook County circuit court on Feb. 15, accusing DCFS of violating provisions of the VOICES Act, the 2019 law requiring a swift process to consider U Visa certifications.</p><p>“This is my last shot at legal status,” the woman said in an interview. “I don’t want the system to fail me again.”</p><p>Most U visa certifications go through police and other agencies, according to federal data. But it’s common for child protective services to be the only agency involved in a case, said Danielle Kalil, a University of Michigan law professor.</p><p>A spokesperson for DCFS said the agency had received just seven U visa certification requests since the VOICES Act took effect in January 2019 and certified one. DCFS officials would not discuss that case.</p><p>In New York City, where about the same number of undocumented immigrants live as do in Illinois, child protective services have issued more than 234 U visa certifications since 2019, records show.</p><p>Kalil said the VOICES Act mirrors legislation in California and New York requiring state law enforcement agencies to quickly handle U visa certifications. The laws give child welfare agencies discretion to decide whether to certify U visas, but “you don’t get to decide not to review it at all,” she said. </p><p> The longer DCFS takes to comply with the VOICES Act, the longer potential applicants will have to wait in line for a U visa, Kalil said.</p><p>The federal government awards no more than 10,000 U visas a year, and the applicant backlog topped 188,000 as of September. That means it could take more than a decade for someone who applied for the visa this year to get it, Kalil said.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Sarah Diaz, co-author of the VOICES Act, who is associate director of Loyola University Chicago’s Center for the Human Rights of Children." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/217ec73/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1794x1007+9+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FcVW8g_QMx8wuZpwEXkZvNY-35d0%3D%2F0x0%3A1812x1007%2F1812x1007%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28906x504%3A907x505%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24453715%2FDiaz__S_Faculty_Headshot.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3b09603/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1794x1007+9+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FcVW8g_QMx8wuZpwEXkZvNY-35d0%3D%2F0x0%3A1812x1007%2F1812x1007%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28906x504%3A907x505%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F24453715%2FDiaz__S_Faculty_Headshot.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Sarah Diaz, co-author of the VOICES Act, who is associate director of Loyola University Chicago’s Center for the Human Rights of Children.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Loyola University Chicago</p></div></div>
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</div><p>By preventing undocumented victims from applying for the U visa, DCFS could be keeping others from even coming forward, said Sarah Diaz, co-author of the VOICES Act, who is associate director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago.</p><p>“It makes children and their families remain in the shadows,” Diaz said.</p><div class="RelatedList Enhancement" data-module data-align-center>
<div class="RelatedList-title">Related</div>
<ul class="RelatedList-items">
<li class="RelatedList-items-item">
<a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/6/6/18342845/for-immigrant-crime-victims-police-block-path-to-win-special-visas" target="_blank" >For immigrant crime victims, police block path to win special visas</a>
</li>
</ul>
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<img class="Image" alt="Carlos Ballesteros reports for Injustice Watch, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit journalism organization." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a155438/2147483647/strip/true/crop/428x240+170+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fp82Ts_ER3sSIFZthajIpnNHvpFA%3D%2F0x0%3A768x240%2F768x240%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28384x120%3A385x121%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16279572%2Finjusticewatch.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/91e0957/2147483647/strip/true/crop/428x240+170+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fp82Ts_ER3sSIFZthajIpnNHvpFA%3D%2F0x0%3A768x240%2F768x240%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28384x120%3A385x121%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16279572%2Finjusticewatch.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p><a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/author/carlosballesteros/" target="_blank" >Carlos Ballesteros </a>reports for Injustice Watch, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit journalism organization.</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p></p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/2/25/23611135/dcfs-uvisas-undocumented-survivors-child-abuse-visas-immigrationCarlos Ballesteros | Injustice Watch2022-08-24T14:15:00-05:002022-08-24T18:03:33-05:00Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center locking kids, teens in cells too long, scathing review finds
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<img class="Image" alt="Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/93bed79/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4950x2778+0+58/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fg1vxxRwWP6wY3JfD6yyK660lFeg%3D%2F0x0%3A4950x3300%2F4950x3300%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282605x1447%3A2606x1448%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23369615%2Fmerlin_103417738.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c456b38/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4950x2778+0+58/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fg1vxxRwWP6wY3JfD6yyK660lFeg%3D%2F0x0%3A4950x3300%2F4950x3300%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282605x1447%3A2606x1448%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23369615%2Fmerlin_103417738.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans appointed a committee to look into problems at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. More than a year later, he plans to name a new committee to look into how to implement changes the first committee recommended.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Pat Nabong / Sun-Times</p></div></div>
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<p>In a scathing report, a group of juvenile justice experts says the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center — a five-story fortress on the West Side with courtrooms and a public school that houses as many as 175 youths — should be permanently shut down and replaced with smaller, community-based facilities focused on rehabilitation.</p><p>The report comes from a committee convened last year by Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans, whose office oversees the detention center, which is the country’s largest stand-alone juvenile jail. Evans asked the committee to evaluate procedures at the detention center, especially regarding how long youths are confined to their cells.</p><p>The committee found that the detention center, known as the JTDC, is “isolating and deprivational,” rather than rehabilitative. Most kids and teenagers there — the vast majority of those held there are Black — spend at least 13 hours a day locked in their small cells — including one hour when the facility is locked down during shift changes and from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day for what jail officials call “sleeping hours.” </p><p>The committee noted that no healthy teenager sleeps during that stretch of time and said the jail’s staff often disciplines youths by confining them to their cells for several more hours on top of that.</p><p>“Semantics do not diminish the harsh reality that JTDC youth are locked in their cells for most of the day, every day,” the committee wrote. “No parent would be allowed to do this to their child.”</p><p>Evans received the committee’s report in May, but his office didn’t release it until Tuesday — a week after Injustice Watch obtained a copy and asked the chief judge’s office about it.</p><p>A spokeswoman for Evans said the chief judge is forming another committee to implement the recommendations but did not provide a full list of its members or respond to questions about when the work will begin or which recommendations the judge plans to follow.</p><p>Gene Griffin, a retired lawyer and child psychologist whom Evans picked to chair the committee that issued the new report, said he’s happy that Evans released the report but expressed concern that convening another committee would delay changes.</p><p>“I would much rather he actually be implementing some of the recommendations, as opposed to another committee to look at the recommendations,” Griffin said. “It’s good to be looking at these issues, but by appointing another committee, that doesn’t change anything for the kids in detention today. And our committee took a whole year, so this means another year of no changes until another committee report comes out? That would be disappointing.”</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="A room at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. A committee convened by Chief Judge Tim Evans found that conditions at the JTDC are “isolating and deprivational.”" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6244507/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1494x838+0+79/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FoZ7MHo3EyJohR7HW0xlW7Rsvi7s%3D%2F0x0%3A1494x996%2F1494x996%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28747x498%3A748x499%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23968545%2FScreen_Shot_2022_08_24_at_1.54.06_PM.png 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/244f0d1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1494x838+0+79/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FoZ7MHo3EyJohR7HW0xlW7Rsvi7s%3D%2F0x0%3A1494x996%2F1494x996%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28747x498%3A748x499%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F23968545%2FScreen_Shot_2022_08_24_at_1.54.06_PM.png 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>A room at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. A committee convened by Chief Judge Timothy Evans found that conditions at the JTDC are “isolating and deprivational.”</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Provided</p></div></div>
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</div><p>Neither Evans nor Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle responded to questions about the report and whether the county plans to allocate money to build smaller juvenile detention facilities.</p><p>In a letter to Evans in May, Griffin called for JTDC Supt. Leonard Dixon’s firing, saying he should be replaced with someone “committed to transforming the JTDC from simply housing youth within its charge to safely developing youth competency.” </p><p>In a written response to the committee’s report, Dixon wrote that he isn’t opposed to sending kids to smaller facilities. But he took issue with almost everything else in the report.</p><p>The committee interviewed currently and formerly detained youths and included comments from them in its report.</p><p>“There’s good staff and bad staff,” one told the committee. “Bad staff call you names, curse at you and throw things at you and hit you, and then say they were only playing around. When we’re in our rooms, some staff talk bad about us, but we can still hear them.”</p><p>“Staff will call off on weekends and holidays,” another said. “Summer is very short-staffed, so we almost never came out of our rooms.”</p><p>“Staff uses room confinement to control us,” another young person said. </p><p>Evans convened the committee in April 2021 in response to<a class="Link" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22186973-cook-county-jtdc-advisory-board-2019-annual-report?responsive=1&title=1" target="_blank" > a report by the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Advisory Board</a>, which called for the end of punitive room confinement at the jail. </p><p>That followed<a class="Link" href="https://www.chicagoreporter.com/solitary-confinement-of-juveniles-on-the-rise-in-cook-county/" target="_blank" > reporting by the Chicago Reporter in 2018</a> that found that the use of punitive confinement had increased even as the detention center’s population had decreased, and three reports from the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Center for Children’s Law and Policy that urged the detention center to reduce its reliance on room confinement to control behavior.</p><p>The new report came to light as Evans, 79, faces two crucial elections. On Sept. 13, the county’s circuit judges will vote on whether to give Evans<a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/2019/a-record-cook-county-chief-judge-wins-unprecedented-seventh-term/" target="_blank" > a record eighth term as chief judge</a>, a position he’s had since 2001. On Nov. 8, voters will decide whether to retain Evans as a judge for another six-year term.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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<img class="Image" alt="Carlos Ballesteros reports for Injustice Watch, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit journalism organization." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a155438/2147483647/strip/true/crop/428x240+170+0/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fp82Ts_ER3sSIFZthajIpnNHvpFA%3D%2F0x0%3A768x240%2F768x240%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28384x120%3A385x121%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16279572%2Finjusticewatch.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/91e0957/2147483647/strip/true/crop/428x240+170+0/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fp82Ts_ER3sSIFZthajIpnNHvpFA%3D%2F0x0%3A768x240%2F768x240%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28384x120%3A385x121%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16279572%2Finjusticewatch.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p><a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/author/jonahnewman/" target="_blank" >Jonah Newman</a> and <a class="Link" href="https://www.injusticewatch.org/author/carlosballesteros/" target="_blank" >Carlos Ballesteros </a>report for Injustice Watch, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit journalism organization.</p></figcaption></div>
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https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/8/24/23320397/cook-county-juvenile-temporary-detention-center-timothy-evans-gene-griffin-leonard-dixon-jtdcJonah Newman | Injustice WatchCarlos Ballesteros | Injustice Watch