Omnibus Bill on Criminal Justice

Thanks to all who called in regarding this bill.  Sometimes we can celebrate. YOU did it! The Workers Center for Racial Justice celebrates today’s passage of the landmark Omnibus Bill on Criminal Justice championed by the IL Legislative Black Caucus. This momentous policy package takes crucial steps in advancing justice by enacting targeted reforms to anti-Black systems of law enforcement and mass incarceration. This legislation was shaped by the instrumental role that members and supporters like yourselves played in shaping and advancing this criminal justice work.  Folks like you emailed elected officials, made phone calls, sent text messages and even filled out witness slips to testify on the urgent need for racial justice legislation. Some key components of the bill are:

• Police accountability language drafted by WCRJ which would outlaw the destruction of police conduct records, and prohibit unjust barriers to filing officer complaints, such as sworn affidavit requirements currently in practice in many police departments. Many people don’t report incidents of misconduct because they fear retalliation after giving their names and contact information.
• a provision to abolish Illinois’s system of prison gerrymandering, ensuring more racially equitable federal funding and democratic representation in government
• End the racialized practice of wealth-based pretrial incarceration in Illinois by ending the cash bail system.

Action Ridge makes a difference!! In solidarity!   Nan and Liz