Mental health care in Illinois prisons has been debated, investigated and litigated for decades, with little consequence for the more than 12,000 detainees who need counseling, medication and other therapy. For almost two decades, Chicago attorney Harold Hirshman has been on the frontlines of the fight to create a mental health care system for Illinois
A Conversation with Alan Beaman and his attorney After 29 years, it’s time to talk For nearly three decades, Alan Beaman’s comments on the wrongful conviction that sent him to prison for 13 years have been restrained and carefully crafted. On October 22, Beaman and his lawyer Jeffrey Urdangen will come to Illinois State University’s
I enjoyed my time this morning with the audience at Living Well United in LeRoy. I shared some highlights from my time as a crime and legal affairs reporter at The Pantagraph and WGLT. It’s amazing how many of the court cases I have covered that people still recall and want to talk about. Our
The Uptown People’s Law Center is looking for a new leader. Those are some big shoes to fill. Alan Mills will retire as executive director when a successor is named, the firm announced this week. Mills came to the UPLC is 1979 as a law school intern and named executive director in 1979 after the
Barton McNeil was saddened in 2011 to hear of the death of Linda Tyda, a Chicago-area woman found in a shallow grave two hours north of Bloomington, Illinois, the place she was strangled and stored in a plastic tub by her daughter-in-law, Misook Nowlin, before her burial. McNeil was also not surprised to hear that
John Hanlon, Kristine Bunch, Steven Beckett and Patrick Pursley Kristine Bunch and Patrick Pursley share a common bond, forged by decades in prison for crimes they did not commit, and their eventual exonerations that allowed them to share their stories this week with an audience at Heartland Community College. “Justice Denied” was moderated by John
It will be fun, they said. All you have to do is come to the haunted house and show people around. I admit I have never been a fan of anything haunted, but in exchange for volunteering a few hours, our granddaughter’s softball team would earn a donation to help cover team expenses. But my
It was a night, wrapped in a nightmare, that the people of Clinton, Illinois will never forget. The evening of September 3, 2003 ended as it had begun: a quiet end-of-summer day, marked by the start of a new school year and weather warm enough to lure kids and their families outdoors. The children of
Over my four decades as a journalist, I spent countless days and some late nights waiting for juries to return their verdicts. If the vigil held all the excitement of a dripping faucet for me, I could only imagine the tedious nature of the deliberations. My assumption of what jurors experienced changed over the years
Dr. Sarah Bonner and the Heyworth school district went their separate ways last month after she became the target of a social media frenzy over a book in her eighth grade English classroom. The book is titled "This Book Is Gay" and explores topics teens encounter as they navigate the road to adulthood: dating, sex
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