- Credibility:
CHICAGO — Former inmates and survivors of police violence will demonstrate outside Cook County Jail this weekend to support hundreds of women incarcerated during Mother’s Day.
The ninth annual vigil is a call for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Gov. JB Pritzker to dismiss charges, reduce sentences and grant clemency to moms separated from their children, especially as they have faced poor conditions and limited visitation during the pandemic, according to a news release.
The demonstration starts 11 a.m. Saturday at the jail’s main visitor gate, 2650 S. California Ave. Organizers plan to attend from Moms United Against Violence & Incarceration, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Chicago Torture Justice Center, Uptown People’s Law Center, Women’s Justice Institute and other groups.
Organizers said there are 195 moms detained at Cook County Jail and 1,325 moms incarcerated throughout the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“Mother’s Day can be a devastating time for many, especially those grieving moms whose children were killed by police,” organizers said in a statement. “It is also traumatic for moms grieving separation from children who are sentenced decades to life, often under accountability laws, which overwhelmingly target youth and moms of color.”
The vigil “will demand the defunding of police and all forms of incarceration and forcible family separation, which do not keep us safe, but produce and perpetuate all forms of violence,” organizers said.
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