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Jan 7, 2025 | 
wbez.org | Matthew Hendrickson |Tom Schuba |David Struett |Lauren Frost
A civil rights lawyer accused Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke on Monday of directing prosecutors to threaten the lawyer’s client with perjury to scare him and other potential witnesses from recanting testimony in police misconduct cases. Jennifer Bonjean told Judge Carol Howard she believed O’Neill Burke did so “to signal there is a new sheriff in town” to defense attorneys representing clients who claim they were wrongly convicted because of police misconduct.
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Dec 15, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Alex Keefe |Mawa Iqbal |Lauren Frost |Charlotte West
Prisioncast! is a statewide radio show and journalism project serving people incarcerated in Illinois & their loved ones with news and information. Our next show is set to air in March 2025, focusing on ideas from listeners about what it means to be “rehabilitated.” Share your ideas, learn more & get involved here.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Chip Mitchell |Andy Grimm |Patrick Smith |Lauren Frost
Chicago will spend nearly twice as much on its police department as what Mayor Brandon Johnson is proposing in his 2025 budget, according to a report by a former City Council financial analyst. Johnson’s nearly $2.1 billion CPD budget does not account for pensions, benefits or vastly underbudgeted spending on overtime and legal defense, according to Jonathan Silverstein, who left the Council Office of Financial Analysis in 2020.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Andy Grimm |Mawa Iqbal |Patrick Smith |Lauren Frost
In a blockbuster ruling Thursday, the state Supreme Court overturned the conviction of actor Jussie Smollett for an alleged 2019 hoax hate crime, a move that will spare the former “Empire” star a five-month jail sentence, if not clear his name.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Patrick Smith |Lauren Frost |Charlotte West |Tom Schuba
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx leaves office at the end of the month, at which time she’ll be replaced by former Appellate Court Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke. Foxx was the first Black woman to serve as the county’s top prosecutor. During her eight years in office, she approved hundreds of exonerations, helped legalize marijuana and successfully pushed to abolish cash bail. Foxx also faced near-constant criticism for her so-called progressive approach.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
wbez.org | David Struett |Sophie Sherry |Lauren Frost |Charlotte West
Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez was an “exemplary” officer who sacrificed his life while working in one of the toughest districts on the South Side, CPD Supt. Larry Snelling told a packed church Monday at the young officer’s funeral. Snelling asked Martinez’s family to look around the pews of St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave., and notice the law enforcement officers who traveled across the country to attend the funeral.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Lauren Frost |Charlotte West |Tom Schuba |Fran Spielman
Family members of a man incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center who died during a heat wave there are suing the state’s prison system in federal court. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed Thursday on behalf of the estate of Michael Broadway, who lost consciousness in his top-level cell in June as temperatures inside the dilapidated prison reached dangerous levels, according to the civil complaint.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Tom Schuba |Fran Spielman |Chip Mitchell |Lauren Frost
Chicago risks being held in contempt of court if Mayor Brandon Johnson insists on slashing spending and staff integral to the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered reform push, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul warned this week. In a letter to Johnson dated Tuesday and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Raoul expressed “grave concern” about cuts targeting CPD units responsible for implementing sweeping changes mandated in a federal consent decree.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Chip Mitchell |Tom Schuba |Lauren Frost |Emmanuel Camarillo
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 budget proposal recommends the same funding level for Police Department settlements and court losses that the city has allocated annually for five years — an amount increasingly illusory as actual spending climbs higher and higher. Johnson’s recommendation duplicates the $82.6 million that Mayor Lori Lightfoot put on the books in late 2019 for her administration’s first budget.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
wbez.org | Charlotte West |Mawa Iqbal |Chip Mitchell |Lauren Frost
A pair of federal lawsuits claim the Illinois Department of Corrections unjustly disciplined two Black students in Northwestern University’s prison education program because the students worked together to prevent university staff from harassment during their visits to the prison. Corrections officials deemed the coordinated effort to “stop problems” gang-related activity, according to the federal complaints. The lawsuits were expected to be filed Wednesday morning.
