skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Experts say a New Direction Needed for Illinois Drug Policy

play audio
Play

Friday, June 12, 2009   

Chicago – With growing disparities in drug sentences according to race, some experts say Illinois needs a new direction in drug policy. A conference in Chicago today will examine ways to make it happen. Despite the fact that the rates of illicit drug use vary little by ethnicity, many studies show that criminal justice consequences for drugs fall overwhelmingly on minorities.

The executive director of Protestants for the Common Good, the Reverend Alexander Sharp, says it doesn’t make sense.

"Something's happening in the way our laws are enforced that leads to a prison population that is disproportionately African American and Hispanic, and that is simply wrong."

The United States leads the world in the percentage of residents it holds in prison. Sharp says it’s time for the country to move away from being a "prison nation" and look for alternatives to incarceration.

"Safety for society is absolutely essential, but the folks we are putting in are not a threat in the way that one might visualize. It certainly means that, when they come out of prison, they're most likely to be recycled. We have huge social costs with little social gain, and that’s outrageous."

More than half of all those released in any given year return to prison in three years, according to Sharp. He praises state policymakers for the recent creation of the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009, which offers measures to reduce the recycling of individuals in and out of prison.

Experts at today’s conference will assess current sentencing laws and examine successful programs that provide opportunities for drug treatment as an alternative to incarceration. Today’s program will be held at Roosevelt University.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021