Police torture victims who are still serving time behind bars now have some renewed hope thanks to a $160,000 federal grant that will reopen the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. That commission was established to systematically go through the cases of men in Illinois prisons who say they confessed to crimes only after they were tortured by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his men.

Many of those prisoners have used up all their appeals, but given what we now know about Burge their cases deserved another look. That’s what the commission was doing until the state cut its funding this year. The commission’s former director David Thomas, who expects to be rehired because of the grant, says the money will get them to next year when he hopes the commission once again will receive state funding.