JUSTICE
suggests prioritizing transit spending, and focusing on roadway maintenance instead of expansion. However, the report does not explicitly name the goal of making public transit free, which is a major shortcoming. Fortunately, there have been many different visions of what a Green New Deal could look like since it was popularized in America by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and several plans do call for free green transit. In their book A Planet To Win: Why We Need A Green New Deal, authors Alyssa Battistoni, Kate Aronoff, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos call for free, carbon-free public transit that is located in dense, mixed-income and working-class communities, anchored by fully-funded social housing and public schools. They do not explicitly call for police-free transit, but we should be combining these demands. The beauty of the Green New Deal is that it does not artificially separate issues like racial justice and environmentalism—its calls for “environmental justice” for frontline communities absolutely can include policy changes which recognize that, just as people of color are disproportionately impacted by climate change, they are put at increased risk when we flood public transit systems with police. Ultimately, public transit should be seen as a “common good,” similar to other public services like healthcare, utilities, education, the postal service, libraries, and parks; and providing these services to all Chicagoans would help to address the city’s unconscionable levels of inequality. Therefore, Chicago must guarantee free, carbon-free, police-free transit—as a matter of racial and economic justice, as well as environmental and fiscal necessity. ¬ Bobby Vanecko is a second-year law student at Loyola University Chicago. He is interested in criminal law and interns at First Defense Legal Aid and the Westside Justice Center. He last wrote for the Weekly in March about the need to uproot Chicago’s police “torture tree.”
Incarcerated at Home
Those on electronic monitoring face some of the steepest challenges to their survival as the pandemic escalates in America BY KIRAN MISRA
W
hile the novel coronavirus spreads through Cook County Jail more rapidly than nearly any other place in the country—with 317 incarcerated people and 245 correctional officers and other Cook County Sheriff ’s staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, including three incarcerated people who have died, as of April 13—nearly 3,000 others in the county are incarcerated pretrial in their homes on electronic monitoring, vulnerable to the spread of the virus. These Chicagoans, and those on electronic monitoring across the country, face some of the steepest challenges to their survival as the pandemic escalates in America. “When people are in jail and they're unable to meet their own needs, the state is required to ensure that they're fed; the state is required to ensure that they have access to... basic necessities. That is not true in the case of electronic monitoring,” explained Sharlyn Grace of the Chicago Community Bond Fund. When someone goes on electronic monitoring, or EM, they are fitted with an ankle monitor that they must wear twentyfour hours a day, which emits a constant radio signal that notifies the supervising agency if the detainee leaves the home. This includes stepping out onto the porch for a breath of fresh air or venturing out the front door to pick up mail. That’s why you might hear electronic monitoring referred to as “ankle monitoring” or “house arrest.” Receiving permission to leave the house, even in emergencies, is an arduous process that typically takes up to three days and often forces those on house arrest to choose between their safety and their freedom. There are two types of electronic monitoring ordered for people who are awaiting trial and presumed innocent in Cook County: Home Confinement through Pretrial Services, directed by the Office of
the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court, and the Cook County Sheriff ’s Electronic Monitoring Program. The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) also has an electronic monitoring program for people who are exiting prison. Because of a campaign that resulted in the Illinois Prisoner Review Board changing the rules for the program last year, the IDOC is required to grant those on monitoring at least twelve hours of movement, or time outside the house, a day, which is more than those on pretrial monitoring can expect. However, the rule is poorly enforced; people in the program report that in practice they are usually given much less than twelve
not violate the conditions of electronic monitoring, information including the name and title of a contact person at the desired destination, the exact time of the visit or appointment, and the mode of transportation to be utilized must be called or emailed in to the Sheriff ’s Electronic Monitoring Unit seventy-two hours in advance, depending on the type of movement requested. Such strict limitations mean that, should the need arise, those on EM wouldn’t be able to leave the house to get a prescription filled or to seek urgent medical care for themselves or a family member without a lengthy wait. If they do, they risk getting sent to jail.
“When you have a fever of 103 and you started showing symptoms of COVID-19... you just don't have time to sit around and wait for somebody to pick up the phone, and then chase down a parole agent. It just sets you up to be sent to jail.” hours. The Sheriff ’s Office states electronic monitoring “is used as a communitybased alternative incarceration concept that allows... inmates to remain in the community instead of being incarcerated in jail.” However, in reality, those on EM aren’t allowed to remain in the community instead of being incarcerated. They’re still incarcerated, just in their own homes. For anything short of a medical emergency, in order for movement to
D, a client of the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, is well aware of the dangers of getting sick while on house arrest. Before the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 started spreading, he got sick enough to urgently need medication. But since he was on electronic monitoring, he risked being sent to jail if he went to the pharmacy. “There was no one around—my mom was working,” he said. He had to wait hours to get the medication he needed. These health and safety risks aren’t APRIL 15, 2020 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 17
