features
Illinois Clean Slate Act and the “Second Chance Gap”
In Illinois, more than 3.3 million people live with an arrest or a conviction on their record. A legal justice record of any kind can prevent an individual from accessing housing, employment and services—barriers collectively termed the “second chance gap.” The consequences are lost opportunities and $4.7 billion in lost earnings across the state, according…
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Cook County Tried to Rid People of Medical Debt, but, for Many, Help Comes Too Late
COOK COUNTY — The day before Christmas eve in 2023, Andrew Ciaccio was up all night trying to soothe his stomach pains. When he woke, he could barely sit up. Something was wrong. “It was pretty intense,” he recalled. “I was vomiting and really sweating and really feverish and just really in rough shape. [I]…
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Employment and labor
IDOC’s controversial health care provider is out. Will people in IDOC finally receive the care they need?
After decades of protest from activists, change is coming to the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) health care system. A June 23rd memo announced that the IDOC is abandoning contract negotiations with Wexford Health Sources, who had won a ten year, $4 billion dollar contract renewal at the end of 2023. Now as IDOC initiates…
Economic Development
Six years in, has Illinois’ cannabis equity law delivered?
Illinois legalized cannabis with equity at its core in 2020. Six years later, the results are mixed. After nearly 90 years of prohibition, Illinois became the first state to legalize the sale of cannabis through a state legislature in 2019. Touted by the governor’s office as the “most equity-centric” cannabis law in the nation, the…