FOIA: Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)
This is CJP’s first major set of FOIA requests to the Illinois Department of Corrections, (IDOC). It is clearly well past time that this institution’s work be opened to the public. When you take in to account that IDOC incarcerated 38,259 people as of Jan 1, 2020 and that their fiscal year 2019 budget […]
Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks
Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks is an amazing website that details over a five year period how much money the State of Illinois spends on incarcerating people per block in Chicago. In this episode we feature an interview with researcher and author Dr. Dan Cooper from the Metropolitan Planning Council, who together with his colleague […]
Tribune’s Bail Story – a Weak Use of Data
The Chicago Tribune’s bail story is a classic example of why academic research methods and so superior to the quantitative research methods used by journalists covering criminal justice issues. This video is from our YouTube channel Quick Hits playlist were you will find brief videos on CJP’s insights on justice system policy and practices and […]
IDOC & Their Response to COVID-19
The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and their response to the COVID-19 pandemic is the subject of today’s episode. We feature excerpts from a Facebook Live interview we did with Jobi Cates, Founder and Executive Director of Reform Justice Illinois (RJI). RJI was originally created to work on issues solely focused on juvenile lifers, […]
Top 10 Questions for Interim Superintendent David Brown
We are submitting our 10 Top questions for the hearing on Monday April 20th the Chicago City Council Public Safety Committee will be holding a hearing to confirm now interim Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown to the position permanently. This meeting, like many other of these types of hearings, is basically pure theater. […]
Bail Not Designed as Punishment
What is the purpose of bail? I ask because, aside from the Jussie Smollett spectacle, bail reform is the key issue in the race for Cook County State’s Attorney, a race featuring Kim Foxx, a leader in national bail reform, trying to fend of three challengers in this week’s democratic primary. It’s a question […]
NBC 5’s Pretty Carjacking Report
The reason we have journalists is to provide well rounded context to government data so the public is in a better position to assess the quality of the services provided by our government agencies. Katy Smyser’s recent post titled “NBC 5 Investigates Tracked 110 Carjacking in Chicago Over the First 7 Weeks of 2020” for […]
Rialmo Firing
The four-year saga of CPD Officer Robery Rialmo ended with his termination from the Department as announced by the Chicago Police Board Thursday October 17th. Rialmo was up on departmental charges stemming from his on-duty shooting that resulted in the deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones. If you want to read all the details […]
Vultures Exploiting Violence
One of Chicago’s biggest problems are the anonymous vultures that exploit crime and violence to push political agendas and or make a buck. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is certainly an expert at these practices but today we are going to discuss an up and comer in the field. This is the northside anonymous […]
FOP Watch: 33 months of Foxx Cause 50 Years of Gun Violence
It turns out Kim Foxx’s 33 months in office have caused the last 50 years of gun violence in Chicago. Needless to say this is not an evidence based analysis but it one pushed by the FOP on a recent segment on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom show. They segment was seeking to cover the Mayor […]