Category Archives: Policing

First Class Justice vs. “the Cattle Call”

Posted on September 2015 by Public i

By a Courtwatcher Courtwatch is a group of citizens who volunteer to attend criminal proceedings by request of the defendant or a family member of a jailed defendant. We are there as witnesses to criminal justice in Champaign County, to … Continue reading →

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Work Day: Lament for Darius Graves

Posted on September 2015 by Public i

The below poem was written by Ryan Collins for the project Lament for the Dead (http://www.lamentforthedead.org/), an online community poetry project which marks the death of every person killed by police this summer, and every police officer who loses life … Continue reading →

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What Happened New Year’s Night? Black Youth Shot Twice In Back By University Police

Posted on July 2015 by Brian Dolinar

On New Year’s night, a Black Lives Matter protest broke out in Savoy after two University of Illinois police officers fired bullets into a carload of African American youth, wounding two people, with one of them shot twice in the … Continue reading →

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#BlackLivesMatter Protests Locally

Posted on January 2015 by Public i

Along with others across the nation, people of Champaign-Urbana have held protests, die-ins, and marches. Below are photos from some of the events. On Tuesday, November 25, CU Citizens for Peace and Justice held a demonstration outside of the county … Continue reading →

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New MRAP Soon To Be Rolling Down The Streets Of C-U

Posted on October 2014 by Brian Dolinar

Earlier this summer, the News-Gazette ran a story that Sheriff Dan Walsh had acquired a Mine-Resistant Armor-Protected (MRAP) vehicle. Titled “Something Big Just Arrived,” the article touted the benefits of the new truck. Yet in the wake of Ferguson, a … Continue reading →

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Chuco’s Justice Center in Los Angeles: Home of “College Prep, Not Prison Prep”

Posted on October 2014 by James Kilgore

In August I travelled to California as part of my research into the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system. My first stop was a converted factory along the border between South Central Los Angeles and Inglewood, Chuco’s … Continue reading →

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Six Community Organizations Ask Urbana Council for a Study Session on Racial Disparities in Police Stops

Posted on November 2013 by Belden Fields

October 7, 2013 The Urbana Police Department (UPD) has been reporting traffic stop data to the State of Illinois for nine years, 2004 through 2012.  City data trends and patterns of traffic law enforcement can now be discerned and documented … Continue reading →

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21st Century Slavery, Electronic Style

Posted on November 2013 by James Kilgore

Somewhere in the middle of a November night in 2009 I got a phone call from my then 95 year old mother. She said she had chest pains, had already phoned 911 and thought she was having a heart attack.  … Continue reading →

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Angela Davis with CUCPJ at the IMC

Posted on November 2013 by Brian Dolinar

Angela Davis gave a talk at the University YMCA’s Friday Forum on September 27, 2013 in its series “Beyond Mass Incarceration.” That morning, she spoke at the IMC and talked with members of CU Citizens for Peace and Justice, who … Continue reading →

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How Privatization Destroyed Award-Winning Suicide Prevention Program in Champaign County Jail

Posted on August 2013 by Brian Dolinar

Several years ago, while working at our local Books to Prisoners, I met a volunteer who had formerly worked as a mental health counselor in the local jail. This was just after there had been three jail suicides within a … Continue reading →

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