Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice

Text: Formerly Incarcerated Voters: Know Your Rights. Primary elections in Illinois are 11 days away. If you are not currently in jail or prison, you have the right to vote in Illinois. 2026 Key Primary Dates. Now: In-person voter registration continues. 03/12: Last day to request a mail-in ballot. 03/14: Date you may want to mail in your ballot (A recent rule change has added a significant delay between the date when mail is sent and when USPS marks the date they received it. Ballots dated after 3/17 won’t count.). 03/16: Last day of early voting. 03/17: Primary Election Day. Image: The Chicago skyline rests at the bottom of the image, with a cloudy sky above it. Included is the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice Logo.

If you are over 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, an Illinois resident of at least 30 days, and are not currently incarcerated, you have the right to vote. Participation in our democracy is vital for community co-governance.

Our commitment to abolition is driven by a belief in care and accountability rooted in community — building to Dr. King’s Beloved Community.

Love knows no cage. This Valentine's Day, we're thinking of the special moments our community members have missed behind the walls.

If IDOC policy allowed it, we'd be sending "Be Mine" candy hearts to all of the 1200+ incarcerated partners who make our work possible.

Text: Remembering Trayvon Martin. Born February 5, 1995. Killed February 26, 2025. Photo Credit to David Shankbone. Image: A photo from the Million Hoodie March after Trayvon Martin's killing, emphasizing the flyer with Trayvon's face and a packet of Skittles. On top of the photo is the logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice.

So many Black babies have been taken from our communities. Fourteen years later, we remember Trayvon Martin and how systemic racism enabled his killing.

Text: LAUNCHING SOON: Liberatory Health Ambassador Fellowship. Across the State of Illinois, there are thousands of people with the potential to be leaders in their community. Many of them are incarcerated. So we’re building leadership across the bars. Every month, new fellows will activate power over their health and lead within their community. The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice is proudly in a unique position to perform this work, with over 1300 partners across 32 IDOC facilities. Funding provided in part or in whole by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Image: A cycle between people representing community feedback and growth. Bars and stars are in the background. Included is the logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice.

Countless people are held back by our carceral system from becoming community leaders—we’re challenging this.

Every month, we will induct Liberatory Health Fellows across Illinois’s prison system, training and activating our fellows’ leadership potential. The potential for leadership knows no cage.

Text: The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice Courtwatching program has made over 1100+ observations in the month of January. Judicial accountability, brought by the professionals. From the largest paid Courtwatching program operated by system-impacted persons in the US. Funding provided in part or in whole by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Image: A paper-like background covered with swirls, with a journal and pen in the foreground. The logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice Courtwatching program can be seen.

ILARJ runs the largest paid, professional, and impacted-operated Courtwatching program in the United States.

Every day, our Courtwatching Associates gather meticulous data on pen-and-paper within the walls of Cook County’s criminal courts, enhancing transparency and judicial accountability.

Text: Honoring Dr. King. Quote: The end is the creation of a beloved community. The end is the creation of a society where men will live together as brothers. An end is not retaliation but redemption. Image: Statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice.

Community-based care and accountability are at the heart of ILARJ’s mission. Dr. King’s Beloved Community inspires us every day.

Text: Prisons perpetuate poverty. January is National Poverty in America Awareness Month. ILARJ fights to transform systems and address the root social determinants of health behind harm. Especially poverty (emphasized). Community power can only grow if we reimagine and remake justice. Image: A bare-chested Black man laboring away. Included is the logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice.

ILARJ continues to activate community power so that every person has equal access to opportunity and true economic stability.

Text: Our New Year’s Resolution? Making this year even better for everyone in our Beloved Community. Image: In the background, a gold and blue firework explosion. In the front, the logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice.

New Years should be a fresh start. Today we’re thinking about everyone in our Beloved Community who are marking today in difficult circumstances.

Our collective strength is bound in compassion and mutual love, and we will continue to activate that strength every day.

We wish Happy Holidays to everyone as we rest and reflect on all that this year has brought for us.

Text: Success depends on the ability to activate the power and the radical imagination of community. Our Success Plan is necessary to realize that vision. Joel Davis, Director of Programming at the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice. Funding provided in part or in whole by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Image: A picture of Joel Davis. A distorted image of Chicago is in the background.

Success is a process of transformation. Our Success Plan brings people together to tackle the social determinants of health and activate their power in a community context. We proudly serve hundreds of currently incarcerated persons throughout the state of Illinois and bring them success.

Text: Success at your Fingertips. Edovo x Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice. Funded in part or in whole by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Live now. Image: A person holding a tablet with the words “Success Plan program”. Behind the tablet is a bland image of Chicago. On the tablet is an overlay of the same image, but with crisp colors and a bright light.

Our Success Plan Program is live on edovo for persons in the care and custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Please let your family members know about this transformative opportunity that activates the power of the person from within the walls to reclaim their health and well-being.

We cannot understate the gratitude we feel for everything that has been made possible through these past 6 years. Struggle after struggle, community has continued to band together and deploy radical imagination to make serious change together.

Text: Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Being Unhoused may not be criminalized directly in every state, but the mechanisms to survive being unhoused are. This includes: acts of desperation for food, encampments, sleeping on park benches, loitering, disorderly conduct claims, trying to keep a clean body, limits on what you can carry, street campfires when cold. Image: The text is arranged to look like a court house. Included is the logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice.

If we are going to be serious about public safety, then we must invest in improving the social determinants of health as the most effective prevention mechanism.

We remain thankful for all of the opportunities that our community has made possible, and are grateful to continue working with such incredible people.

Funding provided in whole or in part by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

Hailey now works to understand those impacted by and dismantle these systems of harm and oppression. As the Executive Vital to ILARJ, Hailey will work closely with the Executive Director to support programming and operations. In her free time, she enjoys fiber art like knitting, crochet, and sewing.

She experienced first-hand the impacts of reentry on families and seven years of involvement in the criminal legal system as a young adult.

Additionally, we would also like to welcome Hailey Garza to our team as the Executive Vital. Hailey believes in the power of community and collective solidarity to create change for all persons.

Charlis pours that same passion into her home-based bakery, Hey Bake My Day, where every cookie and cupcake tells a story of resilience, joy, and new beginnings.

Today, Charlis serves as a Courtwatching Associate for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice, using her lived experience to advocate for transparency and accountability within the courts.

Having served 16 years of an 18 year sentence in prison, Charlis was a jailhouse lawyer — empowering others from within the walls meant to silence them.

Building on this accomplishment, we are proud to introduce Charlis Harris to our Courtwatching team. Charlis Harris is an abolitionist, writer, and spoken word artist from Chicago, Illinois, whose life and work embody resilience, justice, and transformation.

For example, we have been able to launch the largest paid, directly-impacted led professional Courtwatching program in the United States. Over these past 9 months, we have generated over a thousand collective days worth of observations in Cook County criminal courts.

Text: Introducing New Team Members with the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice. Charlis Harris, Courtwatcher and Hailey Garza, Executive Vital. Funding provided in whole or in part by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Image: Portraits of Charlis and Hailey, placed in front of an edited aerial photograph of Chicago Millenium Park.

Today, we at the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice are thankful for the opportunities we have been able to create. Over these past few years, we've brought together over a thousand coalition members to deploy radical imagination and change our systems of care and accountability. (🧵)

Text: Our Sadie Hawking Proposal? Fighting Mass Incarceration. Women's powerful voices have the capacity to change millions of lives. Will you join us? Visuals: The logo for the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice. A crowd of people standing in front of a woman with no light on her, giving her a silhouetted appearance. Dots are scattered across the image.

Sadie Hawkins Day is about smashing gender norms and breaking through to those you love. Millions of people — and thousands of our members — are separated from their loved ones and community due to mass incarceration. Visit our website to see how we are speaking out. #sadiehawkins #incarceration

Community Notice from the Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice. The Illinois Department of Corrections is providing 775 free (non-international) phone call minutes each month to call loved ones. This is about 25 minutes a day. This program will run until June 2026, unless funded further. ILARJ thanks IDOC Director Latoya Hughes and First Lady of Illinois MK Pritzker for making this pilot program possible. In the background is a transparent image of the Chicago skyline.

Many thanks to MK Pritzker and IDOC Director Latoya Hughes for meeting the call to do the right thing and help our community members stay connected.

The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice Condemns the FCC’s Rulemaking Decision to Burden Families and Incarcerated Loved Ones. On October 28, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission changed their much-delayed 2024 rule, voting to increase the cost of phone calls in carceral facilities. Illinois rates will not change due to a separate state law. The FCC’s change applies in other states and in federal facilities, and is nearly double the cost of their 2024 rule. No person should be forced away from their family, much less because of an inability to pay.

ILARJ was represented during the FCC's Open Meeting this week. The booing and hissing of the FCC's decision from our section of the audience was widely reported on by media outlets. Nobody should ever be separated from their loved ones.

The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice recognizes See us, support us month. Above an image of a sad child in black and white is the following: An arrest of a parent harms a child's health for the rest of their life. Underneath in the black ground reads "If we could have been there, we would."

Children with incarcerated parents are especially vulnerable, and need as much support as possible. ILARJ is creating healthier lives for all members of our Beloved Community, including fighting to prevent incarceration and to ensure people in prison can connect and grow with their children.

The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice gives many thanks to the Chicago Foundation for Women's Western Suburbs Giving Circle for their kickoff event last week. Included in this image is a picture of Avalon Betts-Gaston speaking at the event and a group photo of the many participants. In the background is a blue shifted image of Chicago with a wavy sky.

ILARJ is proud to have been at this event with Chicago Foundation for Women and Cicero Independiente. We shared our experience as an organization that serves as the network facilitator dedicated to dreaming and remaking justice into systems of care and accountability that serve everyone’s needs.

The Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice surpasses 1000 Days of Courtwatching in Cook County criminal courts. Included is the phrase, Accountability arrives one scribble at a time. In the background of the image is a dotted image of a person scribbling in a notebook, with a gavel in the foreground edited with dots as well. Funding provided in whole or in part by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

ILARJ runs the largest, paid, directly-impacted led courtwatching program in the US. Our Courtwatchers are seven trained professionals making observations in Cook County criminal courts on pen and paper.

We are proud to serve our community and people. Thank you for making this work possible.