Learning together

Jailing Americans for Profit: The Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex : Huffington Post
In an age when freedom is fast becoming the exception rather than the rule, imprisoning Americans in private prisons run by mega-corporations has turned into a cash cow for big business. At one time, the American penal system operated under the idea that dangerous criminals needed to be put under lock and key in order to protect society. Today, as states attempt to save money by outsourcing prisons to private corporations, the flawed yet retributive American “system of justice” is being replaced by an even more flawed and insidious form of mass punishment based upon profit and expediency.
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ARTICLE: ​I Can Be Free Again': How Music Brings Healing at Sing Sing : I've seen firsthand how music can restore what's missing in prison: a respect for humanity. -Pacific Standard by John J. Lennon​
The Sing Sing cellblocks are piles of brick and slabs of metal and steel and concrete, built on a hill of prime real estate overlooking the Hudson River. At four open tiers high, with two sides of 88 cells that stretch the length of two football fields, Cellblock.
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PODCAST: When the Market Is Our Only Language : On Being 
We Americans revere the creation of wealth. Anand Giridharadas wants us to examine this and how it shapes our life together. This is a challenging conversation but a generative one: about the implicit moral equations behind a notion like "win-win"— and the moral compromises in a cultural consensus we’ve reached, without reflecting on it, about what and who can save us. 
Listen to the full episode     Find in the list...

I went from prison to professor – The Conversation US
As a formerly incarcerated person who now is now an endocrinologist and professor at two world-renowned medical institutions – Johns Hopkins Medicine and Howard University College of Medicine – I believe this move is a positive one. People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.
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Several articles on the confusing and important First  Step Act - read from the NYTimes, Marshall Project, Truth Out and Vox

Self-led Learning page lists historic offerings and more to help deepen your knowledge.

Advocacy

CELEBRATION
Support HB 531 has PASSED  and is on to the Governor
There are many questions about this bill - please check out Restore Justice for further information.
HB531 allows for the review of sentences meted out to felons convicted while under the age of 21.  Time served will be 10-20 years before review for parole, depending on the seriousness of the crime.  This replaces a practice of incarcerating youth offenders for life without review.  This bill passed the Senate in May of 2017 and, with your encouragement, the House moved the bill forward and passed it last week.  It goes to the governor.
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Currently Illinois only has Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR) which doesn't have an option to shorten sentences.

Giving in this season of joy

Uptown People's Law Center
Support the people who successfully sued and brought mental health change to our department of justice. This kind of systemic change has the potential to improve the lives of so many incarcerated people.

From their website:
"UPLC has multiple class action lawsuits and several other lawsuits currently filed against the state of Illinois for unconstitutional prison conditions. Our lawsuits will ultimately change the Illinois prison system for the better."
Click here to GIVE

Events you should know about

The All Black Affair:  A Casino Night
Friday, December 7, 2018
6:00 p.m.  :   VIP reception
1000: p.m.  :   After party!
601 S. California, Chicago, IL
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This is a local Chicago organization supporting the work Monica Cosby is engaged with. In the last year the Westside Justice Center has done more than 500 pro bono legal intakes covering all aspects of legal and quasi legal issues within a little over a year.

From their website:
"The Westside Justice Center is a nonprofit legal services and legal education organization that has been in existence for a little more than a year. The WJC focuses on providing holistic legal services. In the last year the WJC has done more than 500 pro bono legal intakes covering all aspects of legal and quasi legal issues."
Click here for more information

Click here for more information about events

Our Mission

We equip UU's in Illinois to ​transform institutions and support people harmed by the prison industrial complex.  Read More

Congratulations Monica Cosby long time supporter of UUPMI working to ensure other women are never faced with prison.
ARTICLE:  In Prison, Discipline Comes Down Hardest On Women : NPR 
​When Monica Cosby, Tyteanna Williams and Celia Colon talk about the years they spent as inmates at women's prisons in Illinois, their stories often turn to the times they would be disciplined for what seemed like small, even absurd things. Especially, it turns out, if you're a woman.
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ARTICLE: 'Prison is not where women need to be'
Chicago Tribune  ::  July 18, 2018   
​The number of women locked up in Illinois prisons could be cut in half under an ambitious proposal by reform advocates who argue that the corrections system has largely ignored the needs of female inmates.
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We need your help! We can sustain this ministry only if we have the support of people who care about our shared humanity with people in prison. Your contribution will help fund our quarter-time minister’s salary, benefits, and travel costs, plus the costs of our education offerings to congregations.

The In Prison Ministry works to create a spiritual space where all people can come as they are and be affirmed in their inherent worth and dignity, no matter their identities or past harm they may have caused. 

The outside work of the UU Prison Ministry focuses on preparing our congregations to become radically welcoming places for formerly incarcerated and convicted people. We embrace the call of Unitarian Universalism to make our congregations accepting of all people.

​The Prison Ministry will also connect UUs to local and state-level policy  initiatives that seek to build a world community of peace, liberty and justice for all.

Donate Now

UU Prison Ministry of Illinois is a 501(c)3 organization, so your contributions are tax-deductible.