Clear all

16 results found

reorder grid_view

Transformative Bail: A Popular Education Curriculum

March 1, 2017

This curriculum is the product of a convening of over 20 black-led base-building organizations who came together to discuss the implications of bail and bail reform on black communities across the country.A subset of convening participants formed a working group that developed this curriculum. We understandending bail as a limited, but necessary step, towards ending the mass criminalization and incarceration ofour communities. Together we seek to ensure that communities most impacted by oppressive policing andincarceration are centered as experts in formulating alternatives to pretrial detention and incarceration.

Arresting Justice Vol 3: Juvenile Arrests in Chicago, 2013 and 2014

November 9, 2015

In June 2011, we published Arresting Justice: A Report about Juvenile Arrests in Chicago, 2009 & 2010 (http://arrestjustice.wordpress.com/) along with our partners at First Defense Legal Aid. Since then, we have continued to analyze and publish data about juvenile arrests in Chicago.This detailed report includes data on Chicago juvenile arrests in 2013 and 2014.

Arresting Justice Vol 3: A Visual Report of Chicago Juvenile Arrests, 2013 and 2014

November 9, 2015

In June 2011, we published Arresting Justice: A Report about Juvenile Arrests in Chicago, 2009 & 2010 (http://arrestjustice.wordpress.com/) along with our partners at First Defense Legal Aid. Since then, we have continued to analyze and publish data about juvenile arrests in Chicago.This is a visual report of Chicago Juvenile Arrests in 2013 and 2014. The report was designed by Rachel Hoffman.

Juvenile Justice in Illinois: A Data Snapshot

April 30, 2014

This new report provides an overview of juvenile justice in Illinois. This is not a research report but is intended to offer a brief primer for those who want to better understand how many young people across the state come to the attention of the criminal punishment system.

Mandatory Minimums and Guns: Opinions from Illinois

December 2, 2013

Project NIA carried out an online survey from November 20 through November 29. 571 responses were collected from across Illinois. The following is a report that outlines the findings from the surveys. The survey shows strong public opposition to SB 1342, a mandatory minimum gun bill proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel & awaiting a vote by the Illinois General Assembly.

Trends in Chicago Juvenile Arrests 2009-2012

August 5, 2013

This report focuses on trends in Chicago juvenile arrests from 2009 to 2012.Some key findings include:There has been an almost 27% decrease in the number of juvenile arrests in Chicago between 2009 and 2012.Expressed in per capita rates, in 2012, black youth were arrested 7.6 times per 100 youth, five times more frequently than Hispanic youth (1.5 arrests per 100 youth) and TEN times more frequently than white youth (0.7 arrests per 100 youth). (Cook, Czykieta, Mack, Skrable, & Kaba 8/13)For the first time, we present a district by district breakdown of percentages of specific racial populations compared to the percentage of arrests constituted by members of that racial group.Black youth are arrested in greater proportion than their populations represent throughout the entire city. Hispanic youth are arrested in greater proportions in a few districts on the Northside and white youth are arrested in smaller proportions than their population throughout the entire city.

We're in it for the Long Haul: Alternatives to Incarceration for Youth in Conflict with the Law

June 18, 2013

This paper specifically addresses five programs in Chicago that provide alternatives to incarceration for young people charged with or convicted of crimes. Included in this exploration are issues of cost, effectiveness, capacity, and the needs of youth and organizations moving forward.

Policing Chicago Public Schools (Volume 2, 2011-2012)

May 24, 2013

Project Nia Presents "Policing Chicago Public Schools (Volume 2)", part of a series of reports on school-based arrests of Chicago youth. This particular report includes data from 2011 and 2012.

2010 Rogers Park Juvenile Justice Snapshot

March 9, 2012

This is the second Rogers Park Juvenile Justice Snapshot published by Project NIA. This report focuses on juvenile justice data from 2010 and 2011 to offer a portrait of youth in conflict with the law in Rogers Park.

Policing Chicago Public Schools: A Gateway to the School-to-Prison Pipeline

January 25, 2012

"Policing Chicago Public Schools: A Gateway to the School-to-Prison Pipeline" relies on data from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to show (for the first time in seven years) the type of offenses and the demographics (gender, age and race) of the juveniles arrested on CPS properties in calendar year 2010.

2009-2010 North Lawndale Juvenile Justice Snapshot

June 24, 2011

This neighborhood-specific report presents juvenile justice data in the North Lawndale community. The report provides an overview of some key data about how youth in North Lawndale interact with the juvenile legal system. The report relies on data obtained through freedom of information act requests as well as data procured directly from stakeholders within the juvenile justice system.

Arresting Justice: Juvenile Arrests in Chicago 2009 & 2010

June 17, 2011

Six million Americans a year have involuntary contact with the police, excluding traffic stops (Weaver and Lerman, 2010). These encounters are often especially fraught and traumatizing for youth. Young people of color, in particular, have spoken out eloquently about the unwanted contacts with police in their communities.In Chicago, thousands of juveniles are arrested every year by law enforcement. There are six possible decision points1 in the interaction between police and young people. Police have the power to decide the following:Whether to conduct an investigatory stop involving a young person;Whether to arrest a young person;Whether to release a young person from police custody with a station adjustment;Whether to refer a young person to Juvenile Court or to the Felony Review Division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office for prosecution;Whether to release a young person from police custody with no charges; andWhether to request that a young person be held in detention until his initial court appearance. Each of these decision points involves the police officers' use of discretion. These points of contact determine whether or not a particular young person will ultimately be referred to court and held in detention.While we know that thousands of young people in Chicago come into contact with law enforcement daily, there is no broad-based public outcry over this reality. Arresting Justice is an attempt to provide relevant, timely and accessible data about juvenile arrests to community members in Chicago in the hopes of spurring action. The sponsors of this report are First Defense Legal Aid and Project NIA.First Defense Legal Aid (FDLA) has been dedicated to issues of indigent defense, police accountability, and the protection of civil rights for over 15 years. FDLA's mission is two-pronged: to ensure equal justice to people in custody at Chicago Police stations and to educate the people of Chicago about the power of their Constitutional rights during police encounters.Project NIA's mission is to dramatically reduce the reliance on arrest, detention, and incarceration for addressing youth crime and to instead promote the use of restorative and transformative practices, a concept that relies on community-based alternatives. Through community engagement, education, participatory action research, and capacity-building, Project NIA facilitates the creation of community-focused responses to violence and crime.Both organizations believe that the first step to dramatically reducing juvenile arrests in Chicago is to mobilize our broader community to address the problem. Timely and relevant data documenting the scope of the issue is critical to such mobilization efforts. We hope that this report serves as a clarion call to those who are interested in preventing youth from getting caught up in the juvenile and criminal legal systems.