Insights & Information

With the 2012 election only two months away, the issue of voting rights has gained increasing public attention. A recent report by The Sentencing Project highlights the disparities between states regarding levels of felon disenfranchisement. Authors Christopher Uggen, Sarah Shannon, and Jeff Manza note that over the past 35 years, the number of disenfranchised people has risen from 1.17 to 5.85 million. Due to post-sentence disenfranchisement laws, 2.6 million of the total disenfranchised population have completed their sentences but still cannot vote. The African-American population is affected disproportionately by disenfranchisement laws, as 1 in 13 African Americans of voting age across the nation are prohibited from voting. Click here to read the full report.

Please join us:

Sunday, March 18, 2012, 3:00 PM
Safer Foundation, 571 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago

IACJ will recognize the work of:

• U.S. Senator Dick Durbin for sponsoring the Fair Sentencing Act, signed into law in 2010 and reduces the sentencing disparity in the mandatory penalties for possession of crack versus powder cocaine. Senator Durbin is unable to attend on March 18 and his award will be presented at a later date.


• U.S. Congressman Danny K. Davis for sponsoring the Second Chance Act, originally signed into law in 2008 and provides federal seed grants for programs that assist individuals released from prison to successfully reenter society


• IL State Senator Mattie Hunter for leading the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission, which addresses racial disparities in justice system’s response to drug crimes


• IL State Senator Kwame Raoul for sponsoring the Illinois Crime Reduction Act, which invests in community-based solutions to nonviolent, drug-related crime

With corrections reform at the top of state and federal policy agendas, this is an opportunity to recognize legislators whose leadership has been, and continues to be, instrumental in improving policy.

RSVP: To confirm your attendance, please send an email with your name, title, and organization/affiliation to Jon.Kaplan@SaferFoundation.org.

We look forward to seeing you on March 18!

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.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously today to make their crack guideline reductions retroactive. Last August, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced from 100:1 to 18:1 the disparity between crack and powder cocaine mandatory minimum sentences. The Commission followed suit by reducing its sentencing guideline for crack offenses in accordance with the new law. The Commission’s vote today extends the reduced penalties to the sentencing guidelines portion of crack prisoners’ sentences. An estimated 12,040 people will be eligible to ask the court for reduced sentences. Average sentence reductions are expected to be 37 months. Advocates including Families Against Mandatory Minimums are now urging Congress to make the legislative change to mandatory minimums currently on the law books to reflect the commission's recommendation. To read more, click here.

At a rally in downtown Chicago on June 17, Cook Country Board President Toni Preckwinkle called the country’s war on drugs a failure and “…devastated lives, families and communities. For too long we’ve treated drug use as a criminal justice issue, rather than a public issue, which is what it is.” To read the full article in the Chicago Tribune by Hal Dardick, click here.

Illinois is among states praised in a new report highlighting trends in reform efforts aimed at rolling back laws that try youth in adult courts, according to the Illinois Juvenile Justice Initiative. The Campaign for Youth Justice released its report, State Trends: Legislative Changes from 2005 to 2010 Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System, last month. As the report notes, states are increasingly moving away from transfer policies, based on research that prosecuting youth in adult courts leads to more crime, disproportionately impacts minority youth, saddles youth with an adult record, "and generally results in a lesser punishment, or no punishment at all. As a result, in the past five years, ten states (including Illinois) have made statutory reforms to bring more youth back to the juvenile court." Illinois' drug transfer law repeal as well as increasing the age of juvenile court jurisdiction for seventeen-year-old misdemeanants were both included in the trends of removing youth from adult court. Click here to read an article on the report in the Peoria Journal Star.

State of the African American Male Conference
Hosted by the Honorable Danny K. Davis, 7th District of Illinois
Friday, March 25, and Saturday, March 26, 2011
8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Malcolm X College
1900 W. Van Buren, Chicago, IL

This event is free to participants and open to the public. Come for food, speakers, and workshops.
Flyer

From perspectives of justice, equality, and fiscal responsibility, one of the most important issues facing Illinois and the nation is that of disproportionate minority contact with the justice system. In 2008, Human Rights Watch reported that Illinois had the dubious distinction of being ranked amongst the top ten states with the greatest racial disparities in prison admissions for drug offenses. Disturbingly, this disparity could not readily be explained by a discrepancy in illicit drug usage. The National and Illinois household surveys on drug abuse show that though the total number of drug users is overwhelmingly white – just under 80 percent nationally and 81 percent in Illinois – people incarcerated on drug offenses are overwhelmingly minorities. The Illinois Department of Corrections reports that most of those incarcerated (80 percent) subsequently return to just ten areas throughout the state, and many return to a small number of communities in close geographic proximity. This mass incarceration puts already destabilized neighborhoods and communities into even further disarray, and has had a devastating impact on minority communities and their children.

Recognizing the implications of these realities for our state, the Commission to Study Disproportionate Justice Impact Act was passed by the Illinois General Assembly unanimously and signed into law by the Governor in 2008. The Act established a commission to ascertain the impact of drug laws on racial and ethnic minority individuals and communities in Illinois. This month marks the official release of the commission’s report, a culmination of almost two years worth of research, data analysis, and public hearings. The study looks not only at the extent of the harm caused to minority communities in Illinois, but also presents recommendations for legislative, policy, and practice changes. The results of this study will have a far-reaching impact on state public policy, criminal justice agencies, and not-for-profits and private agencies. 

The DJIS Commission Report will be released on January 31, 2011

Diane Williams, IACJ Chairperson, is Chair of the American Corrections Association’s Disproportionate Minority Contact/Confinement Task Force. The Center for Health and Justice at TASC, under the leadership of IACJ Vice Chairperson Pamela Rodriguez, provided staff support to the commission.