When then-Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke killed Laquan McDonald in 2014, the fallout prompted then-Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation of the police department’s use of force. That investigation, the results of which were released in 2017, found “CPD officers engage in a pattern […]
Author Archives: Anthony Ehlers
Jordan Neely’s killing demands we all confront racism
On June 14, Daniel Penny was indicted for second-degree manslaughter for choking Jordan Neely to death on a New York subway in May. According to witnesses, Neely, a 30-year-old homeless Black man, was shouting that he didn’t have food or water, but also wasn’t threatening other passengers, when Penny, a 24-year-old white man, grabbed him […]
Promising more police: not a solution to Chicago’s problems
Listening to one of the candidates for mayor in Chicago’s upcoming runoff, you’d think that more police is the answer to everything that ails the city. But how we police Chicago is more important than how many police Chicago has. Paul Vallas wants to make a dramatic increase in the number of cops employed by […]
Mayoral debate was a poor night for Chicago
The mayoral candidates need to remember that hope is political.
Torture by any other name
Solitary confinement is brutal torture. I have experienced it firsthand.
Hard lessons
Without education or job training, what hope do people in prison have for rehabilitation?
Legal slavery
People in prison perform essential work, but the 13th Amendment prevents them from being treated with dignity.
Shooting ourselves in the foot
Harsh penalties for gun crimes don’t make communities safer.
On demand, without apology
Stripping the right to abortion harms incarcerated women.
Drinking water in Illinois prisons is a crapshoot
The tap water at Stateville has been dangerous for decades.
The ‘tough on crime’ myth
When candidates say they’re “tough on crime,” what they really mean is “we’ll put more Black people in prison.”
A very dark place
Maintaining mental health in prison was already challenging before COVID-19 hit.
A new, deadly COVID outbreak in an Illinois prison
An update from inside Stateville Correctional Center