John Maki

Across the country, states are using the current economic crisis as an opportunity to pursue cost-effective criminal justice reform. In this spirit, Governor Pat Quinn has proposed closing eight Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities, including Tamms Correctional Center (Tamms), the state's only supermax prison.

In a...

In an attempt to address the state's hemorrhaging finances, Governor Pat Quinn has announced plans to close ten correctional facilities as part of his fiscal year 2013 budget. The proposed closings include eight adult facilities (Tamms Correctional Center, Dwight Correctional Center, and six Adult Transition Centers)...

The John Howard Association (JHA) is the only organization in Illinois -- and one of a very few in the country -- that monitors its state's prison conditions.

This year, we visited almost 30 adult and juvenile prisons, communicated with thousands of inmates and their families, and...

As one of the country's oldest prison reform organizations and the only group that monitors Illinois' adult and juvenile prison system, the John Howard Association congratulates Salvador "Tony" Godinez on his appointment to become the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC).

Director Godinez is...

The John Howard Association is the only organization in Illinois--and one of a very few in the country--that monitors its state's prison conditions.

In 2010, we visited almost 20 of Illinois' prisons, communicated with thousands of inmates, and met with dozens of prison administrators and...

At scheduled August hearings, House Republican Tom Cross and Senate Republican Christine Radogno's "Investigatory Committee on Early Release" wants to ask questions that have already been answered. What they should be asking is how taxpayers can afford a record high prison population and criminal justice policies that fail...

If you know the history of racism in the United States, you'll be familiar with what happened to Jarrett Adams, an African American from the South Side of Chicago who in 1999 was wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman.

In The Rape That Wasn't: The Wrongful Conviction of Jarrett...

In most police and courtroom dramas, crimes are solved as soon as a character confesses. However, as a new book edited by Rob Warden and Steve Drizin of the Center on Wrongful Convictions shows, a confession is sometimes only the beginning of the real story.

In True Stories...

On September 24, Barney Brown will celebrate his first year of freedom, after 38 years of wrongful incarceration.

Though you are unlikely to know his name or the facts of his case, Barney's story is one of the most egregious wrongful convictions in the history of the United States.

In...

In the recent New Yorker, there is a chilling story about Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man who was executed in 2004 for setting a fire that killed his children, even though scientific analysis established there was no evidence of arson.

When most of us read Willingham's story,...

On Monday, the U.S Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Troy Davis, a Georgia man who was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer that he said he did not commit.

It was an extraordinary ruling for two reasons. On procedural grounds, the...