by Terri DeeIllinois News Connection
Pew Research figures show Black people remain over-represented in jail populations and receive longer sentences.
The John Howard Association is a non-partisan prison watchdog group that monitors the treatment of justice-involved individuals and says change needs to happen at many levels.
Executive Director Jennifer Vollen-Katz said the population of Black people in Illinois is around 14%. For white people, that number is around 68%.
IDOC's 2024 fact sheet shows a sharp contrast.
"But when you look at the racial makeup of the population in the Illinois Department of Corrections," said Vollen-Katz, "we find somewhere between 52% and 54% of the individuals inside IDOC are black - and about 32% of the people inside our prisons are white."
Conversations with IDOC workers and administrators are part of JHA's research, and pair with inmates' perspectives and experiences.
The goal is to increase public awareness and IDOC's transparency. Illinois.gov lists 29 correctional buildings statewide.
Katz said she wants equal treatment in the justice system - regardless of background or race - and a deeper look at law enforcement's relationships with different communities.
She said prosecutors wielding enormous power in making legal decisions is a huge problem in the early stages of the criminal justice system, and said she feels discrimination should be identified at its source.
"The disproportionate representation in our prison system is reflective of the lack of equity throughout our criminal legal and law enforcement systems," said Vollen-Katz, "and so we can't look at any one system to solve the problem. We need to start at the very beginning and do things quite differently if we're going to address this problem."
Katz affirmed that differences in the outcomes of charges, trials, and plea deals in sentencing are additional areas for reform.
She said more information is needed to improve the back end of the justice system - mandatory supervised releases, parole, and early discharge.
A May 2023 study from the anti-mass criminalization group The Prison Policy Initiative shows 28,000 Illinois residents are in state prisons, 17,000 are in local jails, and 6,100 are in federal prisons.
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