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September, 2010
Parnell Perry Jr.
The fact that Parnell Perry Jr. is known as a "great kid" in some circles would probably make the local police chuckle. They've known Perry as a drug dealer since he was in grade school. At 18, he had at least eight arrests.
His choice to sell drugs was never about fitting in or gaining status. Although, those were perks, he said with a hint of pride in his wide grin....
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September, 2010
Isaac Mobley
By the time Isaac Mobley turned 16, he was running scared. He hated riding the bus and wanted to transfer out of his high school, his mother, Patricia Wilson, recalls.
Mobley's biggest fear was the local gangs, which seemed inescapable. It wasn't all in his mind, his drill-team master, James Crafton, said. "Where he lived it was all gang territory," said Crafton, who recruited...
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September, 2010
Martha Jean
Martha Jean sat in the backseat of a squad car as the sun rose the morning of March 27, 2005.
A detective told the 15-year-old that all she had to do was recount the events of the night before. If she did, police would go easy with the charges and she'd be back on her way home.
She arrived at the police station and, without a lawyer or adult guardian by her side, began...
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September, 2010
Understanding how the brain develops could help determine whether Illinois raises the age at which teenagers are tried in adult court.
State Rep. Monique Davis is among a group of Illinois legislators fighting to increase that age from 17 to 18, citing studies that show full brain development doesn't occur until individuals are in their early 20s, years after some youth have been sentenced...
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August, 2010
I have student loan debt that's been looming for years. Every time I think about it, my heart races and my brain calculates how much overtime I'd have to pull to pay off the debt in a year.
I run to my financial planner and she says the same thing: Pay the debt and your anxiety will go away. But, you will have funneled tens of thousands of dollars into paying off something that won't make...
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August, 2010
This package of stories on Illinois' practice of prosecuting 17-year-olds as adults for felony crimes and its impact was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of The Chicago Reporter. Download a briefing sheet on this issue [pdf]
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June, 2010
By all accounts, Fayette County is one of the whitest regions in Illinois, but you wouldn't know it by the latest census count. The secret to Fayette's diversity is the Vandalia Correctional Center, the local prison where 95.7 percent of the county's black population sits behind bars.
Like Illinois' other overwhelmingly white, rural prison communities, Fayette officials count on the...
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May, 2010
Forty-nine miles southwest of Chicago, in Kendall County, officers at the courthouse use Tasers to control unruly people involved in litigation. Three miles northwest, at the Kendall County Corrections facility, officers do not.
But perhaps, soon, they will.
It used to be rare that correctional officers used Tasers. However, in recent years, the device has become more popular. An...
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May, 2010
The number of rapes and other violent crimes at Shelby County Jail in Memphis, Tenn., was at such a high level that the U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter saying the conditions at the jail violated detainees' constitutional rights.
If the jail didn't fix these violations, the justice department would sue.
That was in 2002. Today, the jail is among the 4 percent of the nation's...
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