Learning together

Lawsuit: Conditions horrific for women at south Fulton County jail​: Atlanta Journal - Constitution
Mentally ill women are being held in isolation at a jail in south Fulton County under horrific conditions that increase their risk of serious psychological harm and strip away their human dignity, a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.
​The unsanitary and degrading conditions “can result in dramatic worsening of symptoms, decompensation, psychosis, self-mutilation and suicide,” the suit said. The women are being denied necessary health care and are kept in “an environment that deprives them of meaningful social interaction and therapeutic activities.”
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Neil Gorsuch: Eighth Amendment “Does Not Guarantee a Prisoner a Painless Death”: Intelligencer
On Monday, the conservative judges of the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the state of Missouri may execute a death-row inmate whose rare medical condition would cause “excruciating pain” during lethal injection.
Russell Bucklew — convicted for kidnapping and raping his former girlfriend in 1996, and for killing the man who was seeing her — has a condition called cavernous hemangioma, in which tumors grow on his head, neck, and throat. In his request to seek an alternative method to lethal injection by pentobarbital, Bucklew provided medical evidence that the tumors in his throat would rupture during the execution, and cause him to choke on his own blood for minutes before his death. Bucklew argued that his execution would violate the Eighth Amendment, which bars “cruel and unusual punishments,” citing two Supreme Court precedents involving inmates allowed to provide an “available alternative” that would cause less pain. Bucklew proposed nitrogen gas, a form of execution authorized for use in three states, arguing that his death from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, would be faster and less painful for him than death by lethal injection.
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Who Belongs In Prison? New Yorker by Adam Gopnik
...One reason for these changed attitudes is the great crime decline, a falling arc that meant that, for the first time in decades, ordinary citizens could care more about the consequences of imprisonment than they did about the threat of violent crime. Circles of compassion can grow in the absence of everyday fear: safer subways make for an expanded conscience. But there has been an ongoing argument about what, exactly, is responsible for the surge in incarceration. For a long time, the consensus blamed three-strike laws, mandatory minimum sentences, stop-and-frisk, and the rest of the oppressive apparatus of panicked anti-crime policy. Then, just two years ago, the law professor John Pfaff made the argument, persuasively, that the key factor was simply prosecutorial overreach.
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Self-led Learning page lists historic offerings and more to help deepen your knowledge.

UUPMI Calendar

Pen Pals - Boundaries in our work
April 16 @ 6:30 pm
Zoom Call: https://zoom.us/j/921713559
One tap mobile +19294362866,,921713559# US 

Stop Solitary Coalition: Organizing
Tuesday, April 24th
6:30pm - 8:30pm 
Meadville Lombard Theological School
610 S Michigan Ave, Chicago - 6th floor

Sermon: Do Not Enter
Sunday, April 28th @ 10:00 am 
Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist
1025 N Smith St, Palatine, IL 60067

In-Prison Volunteer Training
Saturday, May 4th @ 10:00 am - 3:00 pm 
Downtown location
​Register here

Parole IL : Stateville Calling
Viewing, Discussion & Organizing
Saturday, June 1 @ 12:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Third Unitarian Church  ::  301 N Mayfield Ave, Chicago, IL 60644

Events you should know about

UU Advocacy Network of IL:

• Thursday, May 9: Environmental Advocacy Day in Springfield.

IL Department of Corrections

• April 23rd : Summit of Hope : Aurora -
  Painters Council 30, 1905 Sequoia Dr., Aurora, IL 60506​
• 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

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.

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