When the city treats teen gatherings downtown as a threat, is it blowing an opportunity?
Some experts say Chicago officials should be providing activities and services in Millennium Park to the kids flocking there.
Criminal Justice
The investigative reporters on WBEZ’s criminal justice desk tell the stories of the thousands of individuals churning through the legal systems every year in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois and hold to account the powerful officials in charge of those systems. Covering policing, jails and prisons, gun violence and solutions to it, WBEZ’s Criminal Justice team works to bring understanding to some of the most difficult problems facing our region.
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Episode 7: Where Life is Precious, Life is Precious
Prisons helped rural towns, while Black communities in Chicago paid a heavy price. Now, rumors swirl that parts of Pontiac prison may close.
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Chicago Beyond’s vision for holistic safety in corrections
Chicago Beyond is creating a different vision for what safety can look like for incarcerated people, their families and corrections staff.
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16 years after alleged extortion, Chicago police sergeant is finally off the force
City investigators tied Sgt. Alvin Jones to corrupt cops, but his dismissal case got buried in red tape. Now he has quit.
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The 16-year-old boy shot dead in Millennium Park had big plans for his family and for his music ‘if I make it to 21.’
“He said there are a lot of things that happen in Chicago, you see so many kids lose their lives at early ages … He couldn’t even make it to 17,” the boy’s mentor said.
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Buffalo shooter is just the latest white domestic terrorist
The 18-year-old white gunman was motivated by the “replacement theory” — the idea that people of color will replace white people in the U.S.
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A man allegedly threatened Mayor Lori Lightfoot and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx over crime
The man allegedly said he was incensed by news coverage of violence in his neighborhood, worried it was “too close to home.”
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Elected judges are rarely voted out of office. Here’s why.
In Cook County, elected judges are seldom voted out of office — even when they have controversial records.
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Episode 6: The Prison Sweepstakes
In the 1980s Illinois leaders held a competition, where rural towns competed to “win” prisons and the jobs that come with them.
