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On January 20, Chicago Appleseed co-sponsored the Community Renewal Society’s Dr. King Day Event: The Fourth Annual Faith In Action Assembly at Kingdom Baptist Church.

The Community Renewal Society is the oldest social justice organization in Chicago, established in 1882, and constitutes 60 congregations across the Chicago metropolitan area.

This year’s assembly featured three pieces of legislation that the organization is pursuing this year and called together state representatives and state senators to publicly support the platform:

1) The first of these is a call to change the state statute and shorten the maximum time from arrest to preliminary hearing 30 to 10 days. This item is a collaboration between Chicago Appleseed and the Community Renewal Society, bringing together our research and their organizational resources to stop a practice which results in 12,000 people kept behind bars every year for an average of 25 days only to have their cases dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage for lack of probable cause. This lengthy stay is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars, represents a great injustice to these people who lose their jobs and are taken from their families, and is completely out of line with the rest of the country.

The following state senators and representatives were present and publicly announced their support for the legislation:

Sponsorship: Senator Don Harmon, President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, announced his intention to sponsor the bill so long as it is in keeping with the Illinois Supreme Court’s recommendations following the commission’s results next month.

2) Opposition to new mandatory minimums on gun possession/SB1342. Drawing upon decades of consensus in research on the effect of mandatory minimums, CRS and Chicago Appleseed oppose any new mandatory minimums as they do nothing to reduce violence, make our cities and streets less safe, and result on longer and costlier stays in jail and prison.

3) Support removing absolute bars to employment for people with records. The overuse of bars to employment for those with records poses an immense and cruel obstacle to those trying to re-enter society. We at Chicago Appleseed along with CRS hope to remove absolute and lifelong bars.

President Toni Preckwinkle was also present and supportive of the event, and publicly reaffirmed her intentions to support the cutting down the jail population, through the expansion of the Administrative Release Program and support of restorative justice peace hubs.

It is a privilege for Chicago Appleseed to work with the Community Renewal Society and co-sponsor such an event. We hope that our work together and with all our partners will result in the aims of this admirable platform, one which is informed by research and driven by the communities here in Cook County.