December 2022 Newsletter

Newsletter DECEMBER 2022

In Memory of Murray Hooper We were devastated to learn that Murray Hooper was executed on Wednesday, November 16th by the State of Arizona. Murray, a Chicago native, was tortured by CPD and spent a total of 40 years on death row. He spent some time at Pontiac Correctional Facility before being transferred to Arizona.

The Intercept published an article about Murray six days before the scheduled execution date: "I’ve come to see Hooper because he wants to tell his story. But he is not here to reflect upon his life. And he’s certainly not here to demonstrate redemption or remorse. He wants me to know that he is innocent: that he was railroaded by crooked cops, corrupt prosecutors, and a judge who saw the state’s misconduct firsthand but sentenced him to die anyway."

In the days leading up to Murray's execution date, we called on our community to petition the Governor of Arizona to put a moratorium on the death penalty and thus spare Murray's life.

Dozens of people called the governor's office and signed the petition. Murray's defense team notified him that there were people across the country supporting him. He stated that he was happy to see he was believed as a torture survivor, and that people know what happened to him.

The death penalty was abolished in Illinois in 2011, which was made possible by survivors on death row who organized a coalition of incarcerated survivors and supporters on the outside. We will continue to stand with all survivors as the movement to end the death penalty in every state continues.

Communities Successfully Protect the Pretrial Fairness Act: IL Will End Money Bond January 1st This article was originally published on the official website for the Coalition to End Money Bond on December 1st, 2022

Today, the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate passed House Bill 1095 Senate Amendment 2, a SAFE-T Act trailer bill that amends portions of the Pretrial Fairness Act. The passage of HB1095 SA2 is a testament to the fact communities across Illinois have stood by this legislation even as right-wing operatives sought to mislead them through a multi-million dollar misinformation campaign rooted in racism and outright lies.

After nearly two full years of intense struggle led by communities across Illinois, we have successfully defended the Pretrial Fairness Act from being rolled back or repealed. On January 1, 2023, Illinois will become the first state in the nation to completely eliminate the jailing of people who are awaiting trial simply because they’re poor—a practice that has devastated Black, Brown, and poor communities across our state for decades. From the moment the Pretrial Fairness Act was first passed in January 2021, conservatives and some members of law enforcement have engaged in bad faith arguments and spread outright lies about how the law was developed and passed and the impact it would have on our communities.

During this year’s election cycle, right-wing operatives spent tens of millions of dollars spreading anti-Black fearmongering and sending fake newspapers to homes throughout Illinois, attempting to turn- Illinoisans against the elected leaders who fought to make Illinois criminal courts fairer. cont'd on next page 6337 S. WOODLAWN AVENUE CHICAGO IL 60637 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG

DECEMBER 2022 NEWSLETTER

Pretrial Fairness cont'd

Those attempts to preserve the money bond system—one of the primary drivers of mass incarceration—have failed.

In addition to protecting the law, the trailer bill passed today includes some significant wins for our movement.

Over the last two years, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice has worked with stakeholders from every branch of state government to prepare for the successful implementation of this historic law. During that time, we identified clarifications that we believe were needed in order to effectively implement the Pretrial Fairness Act and protect the rights of accused people in the new system. While we took a neutral stance on the legislation as a whole due to some provisions that our Network did not fully support, we are pleased to see the following measures included in HB1095 SA2: Requires that people who are arrested have an initial appearance in front of a judge within 48 hours. This addresses a significant problem throughout the state where some people spend as long as three or more days in custody before seeing a judge.

Clarifies that anyone ordered released pretrial who remains in custody is entitled to a rehearing as to why they were not released within 48 hours. There was previously no strict deadline on this review.

Codifies the right to appeal conditions of pretrial release, which can be extremely significant and last for years. This ensures accused people subject to significant restraints on their pretrial liberty such as no use of the internet or no contact with their children will have an opportunity for those conditions to be reviewed by an appellate court.

Specifies that a public defender or other courtappointed lawyer must be appointed sufficiently in advance to do their job well, have the opportunity to confer with their client in advance of the hearing, and also must be given access to the same information relied on by the prosecution and presented to the court.

Restores an erroneously deleted credit towards fines for the time people spend incarcerated while awaiting trial. This will reduce financial penalties against convicted people.

Updates the statute addressing standards for releasing or detaining pregnant people pretrial and provides additional movement for pregnant and recently post-partum people on electronic monitoring so that they have ample movement for medical appointments.

Ensures that judges have discretion to impose concurrent sentences for charges brought while someone is awaiting trial instead of requiring all such sentences be served consecutively. This removes conflicting language that was accidentally left in the Pretrial Fairness Act making consecutive sentencing mandatory.

Clarifies and corrects technical language that will help clear up conflicting language or just ensure the original intent of the law is clear. We support these changes, which include amendments to the process for transfer of people between counties and how alleged violations of conditions of pretrial release are handled.

These amendments to the Pretrial Fairness Act are in line with the law’s original intent to lessen racial disparities and decrease pretrial jailing in our state.

For the last six years, the Coalition to End Money Bond and Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice have worked with people of all walks of life across our state to secure this monumental improvement to our criminal legal system.

In addition to these changes, there were also some changes made to the safety and willful flight standards of the law, as well as making some charges previously only detainable under the willful flight standard also detainable under the safety standard. The trailer bill also allows for detention hearings to occur over video in some instances.

While we do not support these changes, we do not believe they were significant enough to oppose this bill or delay the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act. For the last six years, the Coalition to End Money Bond and Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice have worked with people of all walks of life across our state to secure this monumental improvement to our criminal legal system.

We want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who took action with us and made this vision a reality.

This transformation of our pretrial justice system is only possible because of the thousands of people who worked to educate and advocate with their friends, neighbors, and elected officials.

We so deeply appreciate the work of our champions in the Illinois House and Senate that have worked so hard to ensure that our efforts were not in vain. We thank the chief bill sponsors Representative Justin Slaughter and Senators Elgie Sims and Robert Peters, working group leader Representative Jehan Gordon Booth, and Governor JB Pritzker and his staff, whose actions will positively impact the lives of millions of Illinoisans for years to come.

We want to especially recognize the hard work and contributions of the legislative staff who shepherded this effort forward: Office of the Senate President Deputy Chief of Staff Ashley Jenkins-Jordan and Chief Counsel to the Speaker of the House of Representatives James Hartmann.

In this moment, it is important that we remember this change became possible because of the national Black Lives Matter movement in response to police murders of Black people across our country. cont'd on next page

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DECEMBER 2022 NEWSLETTER

Pretrial Fairness cont'd

In 2020, millions of people throughout the United States and the world demanded that governments begin the essential work of addressing the systemic racism that permeates every aspect of our society. Pretrial jailing and unaffordable money bonds became a focal point of that movement following the earlier deaths of Kalief Browder and Sandra Bland. In Illinois, the 2020 COVID-19 spring deaths of Nickolas Lee, Jeffrey Pendelton, Karl Battiste and others awaiting trial in Cook County Jail exposed the potentially deadly consequences of pretrial jailing and increased the pressure to end money bond.

We Are All in Recovery Written by La Tanya Jenifor-Sublett, Director of Holistic and Liberatory Peer Reentry at CTJC As much as we would like to leave recovery to those who are struggling with substance and alcohol abuse, the truth is, we are all in recovery. All of us are recovering from something in this life that we are living.

We could be recovering from childhood traumas, relationships, bad decisions, health issues, and financial instability. For many of us, it isn’t just one of these, it is all of them.

The goal of recovery is to return to a place of normalcy.

What if some of us have no idea of what normal is. What if never knowing what normal is lead us to experience all of the previously mentioned life issues. What if you find yourself in an environment that is everything but normal.

This can be challenging and discouraging. This is especially true for those of us who have experienced incarceration. We know that prison is a place that routinely allows instances of mistreatment, lack of proper care, nourishment and safety, all of which create painful experiences. These compiled experiences make it harder to find a way to recover.

It is during these times that we must tap into the other “R” word that follows along with recovery. This word is Resilience. Google (Oxford Languages) defines Resilience as, “the ability to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” It comes from a Latin word that means, “to be present” However, it isn’t about doing it quickly. Resilience, like recovery, takes one day at a time. Instead of focusing on painful experiences, you acknowledge that there was a setback or an adversity, and you decide-even declare- that you will overcome and not allow this experience to define who you are or who you aspire to be.

I know what you are thinking, it couldn’t be that simple. You are right, you must put in the work to build your resilience. Resilience is about learning what motivates you, what your strengths and weaknesses are. Becoming selfaware allows you to view others through a lens of empathy and understanding.

Afterall, everyone is recovering from something. Be mindful of how you are feeling in certain situations, don’t judge how you feel. Some feelings aren’t good or bad, they just are. Use this as an opportunity to learn and grow. Take care of yourself, if you don’t take care of you, no one else will.

Be kind to yourself, speak to yourself the way that you want others to. Establish good relationships with positive people. If you are in a bad situation, the last thing you need is company. Find others who have overcome. Most important, every situation has a purpose. Find your purpose and make that your focus.

Let your resilience be contagious.

We are all recovering from something. Always seek to find your authentic self and celebrate who you are becoming. There will always be someone who will try to remind you of the very things that you are trying to recover from. So, prepare yourself, you don’t have to defend why you are choosing to recover and become resilient. Choose you and let go of what you once thought or believed to be true about yourself. And finally, don’t be selfish, let your resilience be contagious.

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DECEMBER 2022 NEWSLETTER

Reflections: Looking back at 2022, Looking forward to a new year The CTJC staff has been collectively reflecting on the year we've had, a year filled with so much growth and many accomplishments. We've also been dreaming towards all the possibilities that lay ahead of us. We send you strength and gratitude for being part of our community as we prepare for this new year, and we invite you to practice a similar yearend reflection for yourself with these questions. When you reflect on this year, what do you see? What goals, aspirations, blessings, or dreams do you imagine for 2023? If you'd like to share what comes to mind, please write to us! We may include your responses in future newsletters.

What are you proud of or celebrating from 2022?

"I am so proud of and celebrate every chance I get, the growth and accomplishments that the community members I am working with individually have made. I am so humbled that they trust me with their thoughts, feelings, and stories. Nothing makes me happier than when they are able to see a change in their behavior or thought pattern that they have been fighting for!"

Shalom Parker Art Therapist "I am so proud of the reentry meal. I am so humbled by how people have shown up consistently. I'm celebrating that they believe in us enough to come eat a meal, and how up again and again and bring somebody with them. So that's my celebration. We put the word out this year that this is a space for survivors, and survivors showed up.

I'm just celebrating that success. I think I can ride that out until this time next year. I think it's a success for the team, and a success for the Center to be bubbling over with survivors. That's something to celebrate."

"I'm a business owner and I build custom furniture. I'm proud of that and the fact that it's continuing to grow.

I'm also working with young people inside of prison institutions now I'm pretty proud of that as well. Everyday when I get those phone calls of a young man or woman, who tells me they appreciate me because I've stayed consistent, and now they have a job, have gotten their first apartment, or thanking me for going to court with them and now they've dropped their case.

Those are the types of things that make me proud, because I know that now there is another young person who has an opportunity to go and do something greater in life."

Carl Williams Learning Fellow

La Tanya Jenifor-Sublett Director of Holistic and Liberatory Peer Reentry

What are you looking forward to in 2023?

"More than anything, I'm looking forward to trying to expand my role along with the role of CTJC to where we're taking on some of the bigger duties, and we're able to get more resources to reach more people. I think we're trending in the right direction."

"I hope 2023 will just see me more in the role of continuing to help people, whether it's by service or by being a support system. Remembering why I am here, and that's to help the next person in any capacity that I can. That's my goal, to just be present."

Curtis (Delayahu) Ferdinand, Peer Reentry Specialist

Demond McIntosh Peer Reentry Specialist and Learning Fellow

"I am looking forward to growing together as a team and discovering more ways we can deepen our work in and with community. I am excited about increasing the presence of impacted families at the Center and deepening our reach inside our incarcerated communities. I am also excited about sharpening our model, developing more shareable resources, and deepening our learnings."

Aislinn Pulley Co-Executive Director

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