Poor record keeping in Illinois prisons keeping people behind bars
Around 1,000 incarcerated individuals could be eligible for immediate release if their sentences were recalculated properly.
The investigative reporters on WBEZ’s criminal justice desk tell the stories of the thousands of individuals churning through the legal systems every year in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois and hold to account the powerful officials in charge of those systems. Covering policing, jails and prisons, gun violence and solutions to it, WBEZ’s Criminal Justice team works to bring understanding to some of the most difficult problems facing our region.
Around 1,000 incarcerated individuals could be eligible for immediate release if their sentences were recalculated properly.
Police misconduct is an expensive problem for Chicago to have, with tens of millions of dollars being paid out annually to resolve lawsuits.
In 2023, the Hotline received a record-high 17,972 contacts for requests for shelter, up 45% from 2022. But advocates say the state is not equipped to meet the increased demand.
“I think we’ve come a very long way in the right direction,” Cook County Supervising Judge Charles Beach said in an interview. “Things are working well.”
Xavier Tate, 22, was seen wandering the Gage Park neighborhood for hours before confronting Huesca at his car in a driveway, officials disclosed Friday.
The statistics, compiled by the Chicago Police Department, show response times over the last six years were more than two minutes quicker with a ShotSpotter alert than when the gunshot detection alert was accompanied by a 911 call.
A new report says that the state’s continued practice of solitary confinement violates international human rights.
Family, friends and fellow law enforcement officers filled St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel for the funeral. ‘This day is for Officer Luis Huesca,’ said Police Supt. Larry Snelling. ‘This is his day, nothing else.’
Ghian Foreman – the longest serving member of the Chicago Police Board – has left the agency. Foreman served on the police oversight commission for 14 years - much of that time as the president. He was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley. He’s departing with the future of the agency in doubt – after a judge’s ruling that officers facing termination and year-plus suspensions have the right to bypass the public board and have their cases decided through arbitration. Foreman joins Mary Dixon now to talk about that and what he’s seen in his many years on the board.
“Prisons exist to punish and rehabilitate people — not to torture and destroy them,” says the report from the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which found that hundreds of people are kept in solitary confinement at any one time across the state.