March 2024 Newsletter

MARCH 2024

March is Women’s History Month

In 2022, we interviewed La Tanya Jenifor-Sublett, Director of Holistic and Liberatory Peer Reentry at CTJC, and also one of the first women to come forward as a police torture survivor.

What would you say to other women who have experienced police violence?

I would just say to people that you are not a bad person. You did not deserve that I don't care why the police pulled you over. I don't care why you were in the police station. You did not deserve to be abused, mistreated, spoken to in that way. You did not deserve that.

When I spoke to an attorney about my situation and I said, this is what the police did to me, and the attorney said to me, “Well, that's just what the police do”. A light bulb just went off in my head that this is an accepted practice. This is why we suffer the way that we suffer. Because you, in society, in the community, have accepted that this is what police do to people who are in their custody. And what type of society is that? Had I not come to CTJC and been able to share my story with people who knew that I was telling the truth, I don't know where my life would have been.

I don't want for any woman, for anybody who wakes up in the morning and says that “I am a woman”, I don't want for anyone to walk around with that guilt and that pain and that shame, as if you were supposed to be treated that way You weren't Never Not then, not now I don't care what your lifestyle is. I don't care what your life choices are. You did not deserve that.

And I know from experience, from being at the Center, I haven't been the same, in a good way, since I came to the Center And I want for other women to not be the same, in a good way. I'm already out here, and that means there's room for you.

How did you decide to come forward with your story?

The few times that I had tried to share it, nobody believed me. And that left me with unbearable guilt

“I don't want for anyone to walk around with that guilt and that pain and that shame, as if you were supposed to be treated that way... You did not deserve that.“

and shame and pain. The few times that I had tried to share it, nobody believed me. And that left me with unbearable guilt and shame and pain. I carried that as if what had happened to me was some kind of way my fault. I was just in a situation where my past kept coming forward And I thought to myself, Yes, I'm formerly incarcerated, but do you know the circumstances? And I just got to the point where I said, “I am not going to walk in another door without anyone knowing what I've experienced, what I've been through, who I am I will no longer be ashamed of it” As if I walked in that police station and said, beat me, choke me. I did not. So I took back the power by coming forward. By putting it out there, you will no longer control my narrative.

Coming Soon!

Women’s Group at CTJC

The Holistic and Liberatory Peer Reentry Program will be launching a women’s group in 2024. The group will welcome all those who identify as a woman, and especially those who have been impacted by police or state violence.

Stay tuned for more updates

For questions, please contact La Tanya JeniforSublett: latanya@chicagotorturejustice.org

TIRC Updates

The Illinois Torture Inquiry Relief Commission (TIRC) is under attack through the case of People V Devon Daniels Devon Daniels is a Chicago resident that was tortured to confess to a crime of murder he didn’t commit. A set of special prosecutors has been appointed to all eight cases of police torture committed by Chicago police detective Kristen Kato, including People V. Devon Daniels The presiding judge, Judge David Carsen, is set to deliver his opinion on whether or not the implementation of TIRC in People V Devon Daniels is constitutional We strongly believe that TIRC is constitutional, and oppose any effort to jeopardize this tool of justice. Through our opposition, CTJC will attend the ruling in Will County on March 12, 2024.

Without the TIRC, many men and women would remain incarcerated despite being innocent and tortured to confess to crimes they never committed. While most attorneys have kept it among themselves, special prosecutors assigned to the Kato cases are attacking the constitutionality of the TIRC, requesting that it be ruled unconstitutional which could create additional consequences to those that were granted relief through the TIRC decisions. Cases of police torture cannot and should not be sidelined because of political in-house fighting to protect the interest of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Kato cases were removed from the Cook County Court jurisdiction as information surfaced that he is married to a well known Judge Mary Brosnahan. Removing the cases out of Cook County to Will County illuminates the harsh reality that other court jurisdictions have never truly reformed, leaving judges and prosecutors to protect criminal police and to seek out ways to discredit the credibility of the accused. Mr. Daniels and all who are Kato victims of police torture deserve justice.

We say hold guilty cops accountable and free those that were tortured. Brick by brick, Wall by wall, free Devon, free them all.

Sincerely:

Mark Clements, Senior Organizer

Do you need court support?

The CTJC offers support and accompaniment to survivors' court dates. We know that navigating the legal system can be daunting, retraumatizing, and often lonely

Do you have an upcoming court date that you would like support with? Please reach out to organizer Mark Clements with the following information:

Your Name

Judge Case Status

Turnout preference

(minimal, as many as possible etc.)

Attorney name, phone and email:

Please mail court support requests to Mark Clements

Chicago Torture Justice Center

6337 S. Woodlawn Ave. Chicago IL 60637

TUESDAY MARCH 12

From our friends at Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice

ILARJ launched four years as a project incubating inside of the Safer Foundation. We have recently transitioned to become an independent nonprofit organization led by, Avalon Betts-Gaston, a formerly

incarcerated woman. Our motto is, “By Community, For Community, In Community.” This is because we understand that the work needed to bring about “the Beloved Community” that Dr Martin Luther King, Jr imprinted on our imaginations requires working together Our strength is in the 360-degree perspective offered by our partners, comprised of currently and formerly incarcerated people, nonprofits, service providers, legal professionals, and advocates. We are working in community to develop solutions to the problems our partners are currently facing behind the walls along with the problems faced by those on the other side of those walls

“By Community” requires that we are intentional about letting the community experts devise and implement solutions And when it comes to everything related to the criminal legal system, the leading experts are Black people who have been disproportionately criminalized by that system More often than not, solutions are developed in a top-down process devoid of the voices of those forced to become experts as a result of their experience and not their academics. When this happens, solutions are incomplete and imbue hope that can only exist in the realm of theory versus practice. Additionally, this process is rooted in patriarchy, diminishes the value of the very people intended to help, and generally maintains the status quo.

“For Community” requires that we ensure that the solutions developed “By Community” are for that same community. This means that priority is given during implementation to the community that developed the solutions. We are, therefore, committed to putting the communities driving those solutions at the front of the line as a way to ensure they receive an equitable allocation of those resources

“In Community” requires that we work against the common practice of working in silos. There are many factors at play trying to pit groups against one another, usually fighting for resources Our intent is simple: don’t allow these forces to upend community cohesion by being intentional about imagining, dismantling, and building together.

We cannot do this work without you and we are looking to build our movement inside of Illinois's prisons

To join the ILARJ network, contact Illinoisalliancereentryjustice@gmail.com

Reflections on Reentry: My First 75 Days

by Brian Beals

The transition from incarceration to feeling fully free is an ongoing process that has its own timetable. Most people who study the process say, once you’re out ninety days, the odds of someone recidivating are greatly reduced Well, as I approach that window I’m doing just fine.

Let me describe two events I had the privilege to attend. Early this month I took part in the Just Leadership USA Emerging Leaders Training (JLUSA). JLSUA’s aim is to give formerly incarcerated people who run, plan to start, or are working for an organization the training and skills they need to provide quality services to their communities. I was seated at a table with a couple who traveled from Los Angeles and a woman who drove from St Louis to attend.

We listened to the facilitators give presentations that included information about building capacity, using social media effectively, fund raising and many more key factors that determine an organization’s effectiveness. After the presentations, the facilitators would call for breakout sessions to begin We had an enjoyable time at my table discussing the information and creating examples of how the lessons could be used

Over one hundred of us earned our certificates by completed the two-day, fourteen-hour training program. The training program emphasized the importance of networking, and we took full advantage of the opportunity

The other event I want to tell you about was less formal, it was Jimmy Soto’s welcome home celebration. It was held at a nice space in Hyde Park, there was great food and plenty of drinks. Everyone was asked to wear something red. The highlight of the evening was seeing so many people toast Jimmy for all the work he did helping guys file appeals It got really emotional for some of the guys toasting Jimmy, because it was his work on their cases that got them home.

Voice from Inside

Original artwork by Joseph Dole, published in Truthout with his article “Chicago Police Department Perpetuates Its Violence by Punishing Whistleblowers” on January 3, 2024.

War

By Marvin “Prince Saleem” Alexis

There’s a war going on outside!

But hell, it is all that we have ever known

We are the voiceless bastards conceived by prisoners and casualties

From fathers absenteed, trying to affect residuals

Left single mothers embittered bearing burdens of carrying the continuation

The next generation of misguided and blinded children who,

Will pedal on cycles in cyphers for perpetual revolutions

Damaged seeds sown in awful gardens, grown in toxic killing fields

Left all alone to roam in noxious gun smoke-filled mildewed milieus

Fixed for the asphyxiation of all potential fruits with aspirations for the vine

We are, descendants from a line, who descended through time

Who traded our royal shrouds in for potato sacks

To now adorning fashions of institutional and systemic designs

So deeply embedded that it has created in us a genetic predisposition for seeing catwalks

But, all in large like CAPS LOCK…

There’s a war going on outside!

However, what is seen as chaos to fly, Is deemed normal to the spider

See, we have been shampoo’d and conditioned all our lives to accept that this war on drugs and crime, Underline, was written as an unwarranted full scale war on mine on minds… Unlucid

Unable to perceive with a near vision, a clearer tomorrow

Unfocused, from all the tears in our eyes, so dreams are seemed useless

Faith, in truth is, the evidence gone unseen

So hope becomes nothing more than illusioned prostitution and a parasitic opportunist

But, the tragic reality is that this is what we have become used to

So, when you are sung the limerics of these tall tales of Truth-In-Sentencing

Please know the etymologies and concealed intentions

For instance, Corrections is something meant to be redeemed or fixed

Yet, I have seen no rehabilitational, no restorational, not preservational assistance

That which produces the possibility of a fruitful life after reentrance

Now there have been times

When I would lay back in my metal gray haystack crying

Contemplative of the decades I’ve missed with my daughters.

See, I have had to wristwatch them grow from babies into ladies.

Through Kodak flicks and visits, wishing that in their lives, I could have played a major part of Then, I think of my mother, who contracted M.S. since I’ve been gone

To see someone so strong, like iron…Man!

Now, to be a Tony stark contrast of the woman who I remember and admired… Damn!

But, I seek no sympathy

I understand that I was the main subject for the predicate offenses for which you setnenced me

And for 23 winters now, I have toiled for atonement and penance

The journey of self-improvement form a fool who flipped the script like a gymnast

With no incentives, showing only sheer growth and resilience

But yet, it is met with no recognition, only a 100 percentence

Yeah, there’s a war going outside… And all I wish is, That the layers of your hearts be repealed

So that we may apparel to your sense of humanity

Space will not be wasted waiting to see if it will, because if it be God’s will

When the clock is a snitch, only time will tell Now, am I asking for a second chance!

Well no, not if we never stood a first one actually I am just asking for actions, please… And, I pray you do

Because, if you do not do anything to help save the least of us

Then who will be left, one day, saving you… From this war.