Insights & Information

A new report published by Project NIA and authored by Mariame Kaba and Frank Edwards, “Policing Chicago Public Schools: A Gateway to the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” uses data from the Chicago Police Department to demonstrate the type of offenses and the demographics of the juveniles arrested on Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) property in 2010. The authors aim to inform the public about the scope and extent of policing in CPS, hoping to galvanize educators, parents, students, policymakers, and community members to advocate a decrease in reliance on law enforcement to address school discipline issues in favor of an increased use of restorative justice. Major findings include that African-American youth accounted for 74 percent of juvenile school-based arrests in 2010 but made up only 45 percent percent of the CPS population (2009), suggesting that they are disproportionately arrested. For media coverage of the report and its findings, click here.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and experts in the reentry field have advocated for states to evaluate their occupational screening laws to reduce barriers to employment of people with criminal records. NELP, National H.I.R.E. Network, and The Sentencing Project will co-host a webinar to help individuals across the country learn about the latest developments in state legislation relating to criminal records and employment. In addition to a number of policy reforms, the webinar will focus on problematic state legislation that will likely reemerge in the 2012 state legislative session.
 
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
1:00PM – 2:00PM
To register, click here.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced August 15 that the U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) has awarded $9,593,477 in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants to support Illinois law enforcement officers. Byrne grants are awarded to states and units of local government to support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime and to improve the justice system. The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) was awarded $9,517,027 for multi-jurisdictional drug prosecution programs, expanding multi-jurisdictional narcotics units and the local law enforcement equipment program. The City of Moline was awarded $76,450 to provide increased officer presence and law enforcement services by purchasing and installing law enforcement equipment and retaining law enforcement personnel. For more information, click here.

Captain Scott Compton has been named as commander of Illinois State Police District 18. District 18 headquarters are in Litchfield, encompassing Calhoun, Greene, Jersey, Macoupin and Montgomery counties.Click here to read an announcement in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A new report released this week by the White House reveals that across 10 U.S. cities/counties, more than half of adult males arrested for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to felonies tested positive for at least one drug, including 83% of men arrested in Chicago—the highest rate among the sites studied. For more details, click here or here.

Chicago city council officials formally declared on June 6 that former Newark head of police, Garry McCarthy, would take over the Chicago Police Department superintendent position. McCarthy advised the council's public safety committee of his plans for the Chicago community, one component of which is to to reallocate 500 police officers into several neighborhoods to combat summer crime. To read the article by Evelyn Holmes, click here.

Garry McCarthy, Chicago’s acting Police Superintendent, is laying out his plans to improve the city’s police department. His ideas include increasing and improving partnerships between communities and police and establishing a donor-funded foundation to help the department pay for a range of needs. While the city has seen major crime rates drop over the past couple years, McCarthy notes the importance of residents’ perception of crime. Thus, one of his top priorities will be making communities feel safe. For more on this story from the Chicago Tribune, click here.