Presenting Friday at AALS clinical ed. conference about the #Letusbreathe, et al v. Chicago phone and attorney access consent decree. So excited to talk about the suit I co-counseled at First Defense Legal Aid along w/ Alexa Van Brunt of MacArthur Justice Center & Craig Futterman @ UChicago Law School

The brave and noble Juliet Sorensen leaves Injustice Watch with a solid budget, crackerjack staff and deep board. Calls are now open for the nonprofit's next leader. Required: a commitment to journalism and justice ... injusticewatch.org/about/jobs/exe…

Rockford public schools discriminates against Black students. We call on the Department of Ed's Office of Civil Rights to investigate and intervene

BREAKING: Chicago City Council just approved a $50 million settlement to four Chicago men—LaShawn Ezell, Charles Johnson, Larod Styles and Troshawn McCoy— who were wrongfully convicted as teenagers and imprisoned for 73 years for a crime they did not commit. 🧵MacArthur Justice Center

City approves $50M settlement to Marquette Park Four; men wrongfully convicted in 1995 double murder wgntv.com/news/chicago-n… So happy for Charles Johnson (pictured here) Alexa Van Brunt of MacArthur Justice Center represented Charles brilliantly in his civil suit. CenterOnWrongfulConvictions

🧵Since the abolition of cash bail in Illinois the population of the Cook County jail plummeted. Yet my colleague Carlos Ballesteros found that 2023 was the deadliest year at the jail in decades. injusticewatch.org/project/jail-d…

Kudos to Michael Loria for going in-depth on Chicago’s wrongful conviction crisis. It’s borne from racist policing as my client, Charles Johnson, makes clear in the article. The City could do much more to start to right these wrongs. usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

“Results suggest that implementing ShotSpotter technology has no significant impact on firearm-related homicides or arrest outcomes.” - longitudinal study by the NIH ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

.Injustice Watch senior reporter Maya Dukmasova will be in conversation with Loyola Law Chicago prof Maria Hawilo about her groundbreaking new book on July 17 Women & Children First. I’ll be there- join me! us.macmillan.com/books/97803746…

The Chicago Police Department has a long history of depriving people in custody access to an attorney and to a phone to contact their counsel or loved ones.

🧵Almost no one in Chicago Police custody is consulting with a lawyer & more than 50% of people are not making a phone call within three hours of arrest, according to a new expert report in our civil rights lawsuit challenging “incommunicado detention."⁣ first-defense.org/advocacy/new-r…

The time has come for Injustice Watch to once again collect YOUR feedback on the dozens of Cook County judges up for reelection this fall. All feedback and stories welcome and will be kept confidential unless you tell us otherwise! injusticewatch.org/judges/judicia… #CheckYourJudges

The Chicago Police Department is under a Court Consent Decree that requires them to give everyone in police custody prompt access to a phone and an attorney. But our expert recently found that 99% of people in custody never consult with a lawyer, and 41% never make a phone call.

🗣️KNOW YOUR RIGHTS UNDER ARREST - a thread 🧵 [1] If the Chicago Police arrest you, stay silent and ask for a phone. You are entitled to 3 phone calls to anyone within 3 hours of being arrested AND access to an attorney.

📢LAUNCH ALERT! Today Injustice Watch has published THE TENANT TRAP, a project Alejandra Cancino and I spent over a year reporting and writing. Let me tell you about this five-part series 🧵

Justice for Marcel! Congrats to Marcel and our incredible colleagues Loevy + Loevy and MacArthur Justice Center.

Alexa Van Brunt: "I think as a lawyer it is really important to be clear that litigation cannot achieve everything. The real reform, real change, is brought about by different types of advocacy + people on the ground who are bringing light to all the atrocities that are happening

Tomorrow marks one year without money bail in Illinois. No longer are families forced to choose between paying rent and paying a ransom for their loved one’s freedom. This makes us all safer.

Despite hysteria and misinformation campaigns, ending cash bail has not caused a “purge” and saves Illinois families over $140 million, Corli Jay reports: thetriibe.com/2024/09/the-pr…

BREAKING: Loyola Chicago Center for Criminal Justice reports on #Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail a year ago. Among findings, the percent of defendants detained at initial court hearings plummeted (see below), jail populations shrunk and crime didn't surge. pfa-1yr.loyolaccj.org