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MacArthur Justice Center’s Statement on President Biden’s Federal Death Penalty Commutations

We welcome the fulfillment of President Biden’s promise to commute the death sentences of 37 people on federal death row. The federal death penalty – just like state capital punishment systems – is racist, error-prone, drains public resources, and does not deter crime or make our communities safer. We encourage President Biden to finish the...

Lawsuit: Muslim prayer rights denied in Wisconsin jail

“One of the goals of bringing a lawsuit is not only to seek justice for Mr. Emad, but to also change Dodge County’s detention facility policies and practices related to providing religious programming for people who are not of the Christian faith,” del Valle said.

UPI

Muslim inmate denied rights to prayer by Wisconsin jail

“So we brought a civil rights case against a number of players. We brought them against a number of ICE officers, against a number of correctional officers and the the detention center and also against the medical care provider of the detention center,” Valla says. “So there were a lot of claims, and they centered...

NPR

Jury awards $50 million to Chicago man who spent 10 years in prison after wrongful conviction

Chicago Sun Times

Schools still rely on cops to ticket kids for minor violations. It’s a practice that should stop.

The ticketing practice is a debilitating symptom of a larger problem: the transformation of our classrooms into carceral spaces. Over the past decades, schools and prisons have become more alike in law, policy, and staffing. Courts have granted prisons tremendous control over prisoners purportedly in the name of rehabilitation and safety — and they’ve extended that same power to schools.

Chicago Sun Times

Chicago City Council OKs $50 million settlement with 4 men wrongfully convicted of 1995 murders

"Charles, Larod, Lashawn, and Troshawn are among the scores of kids who the Chicago Police Department has targeted for false arrest and coercive interrogations over the years, leading to Chicago's reputation as the False Confession Capital of the country," said Alex Van Brunt, Johnson's attorney and the director of the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, in a statement after the approval of the settlement.

CBS News

An Illinois School District’s Reliance on Police to Ticket Students Is Discriminatory, Civil Rights Complaint Says

Two civil rights groups are asking the U.S. Department of Education to force Rockford Public Schools, the third-largest district in Illinois, to stop discriminatory discipline involving police.

ProPublica

Chicago will drop controversial ShotSpotter gunfire detection system

"Surveillance technology has a veneer of objectivity, but many of these systems do not work as advertised," said Jonathan Manes, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center who spearheaded the study, in a 2021 statement. "High-tech tools can create a false justification for the broken status quo of policing and can end up exacerbating existing racial disparities."

NPR

The end of money bond hasn’t led to an electronic monitoring spike in Chicago—for now

“What will this look like in a year? What happens when the political will sags, or there’s not as much attention on the issue? These are issues we have to be vigilant on,” MJC's Alexa Van Brunt says.

Chicago Reader

Progressives press Chicago mayor over pledge to end controversial policing tool

Brandon Johnson vowed to drop controversial gunshot detection system but approved a $10m payment for contractor ShotSpotter.

The Guardian

Despite promise not to, Chicago’s Mayor extends ShotSpotter contract for more than $10M

"It's really troubling. Over and over, this contract has been extended in the dark without public comment," MJC's Jonathan Manes said.

CBS News Chicago