The Chicago Reporter

The first article in this series on financial disparities in Cook County, “Wealth Inequality and the Racial Wealth Gap,” discussed the extent of contemporary racial inequities in the County. Black and Latinx Cook County residents are more likely to be financially vulnerable than Black and Latinx individuals elsewhere in the country, and significantly less likely […]

Following a highly contentious election cycle last year in which Republicans used the Pretrial Fairness Act to decry Democrats as being “soft on crime,” a series of legal challenges from state’s attorneys and sheriffs delayed the law’s implementation while the Illinois Supreme Court weighed its constitutionality. In a partisan 5-2 decision in July, the court’s […]

“I’ve had many really beautiful experiences. But that doesn’t mean that my gas wasn’t cut off over the years, or that I didn’t get my car repoed once or twice,” Dorian Sylvain said, laughing. The Chicago-based multi-hyphenate—artist, curator, and educator—sat behind a desk in her light-soaked Kenwood gallery, surrounded by scattered canvases and paper collages […]

On an April night in Chicago, Alexis Mansfield, an attorney who regularly assists women with criminal justice involvement, received a phone call from a woman in distress. The caller had previously been incarcerated, but was now on house arrest as part of the Cook County Sheriff Department’s Electronic Monitoring Program. But she was unable to reach her assigned monitoring agent to let the sheriff’s department know she was having an emergency. So she called Mansfield, who had helped her with legal representation previously.

After two years of leading creative writing workshops in the Cook County Jail, University of Chicago student Ethan Ostrow said there is one moment he thinks about often. He recalled how one participant shared that he had been charged with manslaughter after killing his best friend in a drunk driving accident. “Watching him blink back […]

Man pays restaurant bill electronically (Norma Mortenson 2020)

Volunteers pack boxes of groceries at Nourishing Hope’s Hub in Ravenswood. (Abel Uribe, 2024)

A new Northwestern University study found that most justice-involved youth with a mental health disorder did not receive needed services during the 16 years after detention. The lack of services was greatest among persons who were Black, male, or had substance use or disruptive behavior disorders.

Between 2005 and 2020, the number of children facing simultaneous water and food insecurity in the United States more than doubled. Additionally, Black and Hispanic children were several times more likely than white children to experience food and water insecurity at the same time. This is according to new research by Asher Rosinger, associate professor of […]

Protests at the Democratic National Conference were peaceful. That didn’t stop officers from making arrests. Police body camera footage has revealed potential police misconduct and possible First Amendment violations at a pro-Palestine protest during August’s Democratic National Convention. What began as a peaceful protest ended in the police arresting 59 people, including three journalists, and […]