An Open Letter from Community-Based Service Providers

You may be aware that the Chicago Transit Authority  will end its program to help ex-offenders gain work experience cleaning rail cars and buses on Dec. 31. We received the following “open letter” from the John Howard Association of Illinois this morning, urging that the program be saved. At Chicag...

Community Courts and the Fight Against Quality-of-Life Crimes

by Brian Gilbert, Summer Intern with Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice On June 27th of this year, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported here, five-term Alderman Michael Zalewski proposed a bill to raise the fines for adult graffiti taggers from $750 to $2,000, and to mandate a minimum of three days in...