HUGE Celebrations for Monica Cosby:
FIELD FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST LEADERS FOR A NEW CHICAGO AWARD RECIPIENTS -- The Field Foundation today announced the 14 recipients of its inaugural Leaders for a New Chicago award, supported by a $2.1 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to expand the definition of leadership in Chicago.
“In Chicago we have no shortage of brilliant minds working every day to change lives and reshape our city,” said Angelique Power, president, the Field Foundation. “We are so honored to be in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation as we hand over a megaphone, share resources, and then sit back and watch as these incredible people continue to soar, bringing our city to more just and beautiful places than we could’ve ever imagined.”

THE 2019 LEADERS FOR A NEW CHICAGO AWARDEES ARE:
• Monica Cosby, a leader of the participatory defense work at Westside Justice Center and one of the leading advocates for incarcerated women and the fight for post-incarceration rights in Chicago.
Read More

Learning together

Judge rules that St. Louis jails can’t hold inmates who can’t pay: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — A federal judge on Tuesday barred St. Louis jails from holding inmates simply because they can't pay bail. She granted class action status to inmates who sued.U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig's ruling gives officials a week to hold new detention hearings for current inmates in the city's two jails and says new arrestees must have a hearing within 48 hours of their arrest. Inmates can still be held, Fleissig wrote, if they are a danger to the community or if there is no other way to ensure they show up for court. 
​Read More

As inmate suicides spike, troubling questions raised about handling of mentally ill in nation's local jails: Associated Press and Capital News Service
The last time Tanna Jo Fillmore talked with her mother, she was in a Utah jail, angry, pleading and desperate. She'd called every day that past week, begging for help. I need my medicine, she demanded. I have to get out of here! she screamed.
Fillmore was in the Duchesne County Jail on a charge of violating probation in a drug case; she had reportedly failed to report a change of address. At 25, she'd struggled with mental illness for years, but Xanax and hyperactivity medication had stabilized her. Now, she told her mother, the jail's nurse was denying her those pills — and she couldn't take it any longer.
Read More

New York Could Become First State To Be Completely Done With Private Prisons: Forbes
With many corporations having capitalizations that make them larger than countries, it can sometimes feel hard to imagine governments effectively being able to set limits on companies — let alone entire industries. We’ve seen this recently in the case of tech monopolies having federal regulatory agencies completely befuddled, or, on a more local level, the difficulty communities have getting corner stores to sell more fresh food and less cigarettes and liquor.
Read More

Pregnant women with substance use disorders need treatment, not prison: Statnews.com
More than 210,000 women spent Mother’s Day 2019 in America’s prisons and jails.
Two-thirds of them are mothers of young children; an unknown number are pregnant. Many of them have substance use disorders with a significant history of trauma and mental health problems. Some have been incarcerated solely for the alleged crime of substance use during pregnancy, and many have lost custody of their children because there aren’t enough treatment centers for women and their kids.
Read More

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

Events you should know about

Coalition to End Money Bond
The currently scheduled hearings are:

• ​Chicago: Monday, June 17, 2019, 10:45-1:30pm at the Michael A. Bilandic Building, 5th Floor, Room C-500, 160 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 60601.

If you are interested in a deeper dive into the Coalition to End Money Bond's statewide campaign and the Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices, you can join us .
 Facebook event here

IL Department of Corrections​

• June 19th : Summit of Hope : Maywood -
  Proviso East High School, 807 S. 1st Ave., Maywood, IL 60153​

Check this link for further information and to register to help those returning

Join Free Write Arts & Literacy for our first major fundraising event, MoneyBall!
June 22, 2019  :  7pm-11pm
Chicago Art Department  : 1932 S. Halsted

For 19 years, Free Write has worked inside locked facilities like the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, offering literacy and arts education to detained youth. The title MoneyBall is an acknowledgment of the intersection of two critical systems in which our students and our organization are situated—the Prison Industrial Complex and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Both “complexes” refer to industries built on the backs of oppressed people. Everyday, the way we choose to spend money “talks” for us. MoneyBall is an opportunity to invest in Free Write’s community-based solutions and explore how we, individually and collectively, can divest from systems of violence.
​
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.
Read More

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.
Watch Video - Read More

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.

​We are funded in part by the Fund for Unitarian Universalist Social Responsibility - and grateful for their support.