The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice released a letter that was sent to the Illinois Supreme Court by more than 40 academics calling to protect the electronic monitoring provisions of the Pretrial Fairness Act and to halt the expansion of this harmful technology. Read the letter here.

The Pretrial Fairness Act is again under attack, and we need your help to defend it.

120 organizations from across Illinois call on the Illinois legislature to stop SB4228. Read the joint letter here.

Here is a letter that was sent to the City Committee on Budget and Government Operations and the Community Commission regarding the CPD budget and police accountability.

This year’s theme is Together, We Win! These questions can be used to guide conversation with your congregation after viewing the 2022 Annual Membership Assembly video. We would love to hear from you the thoughts and plans that came out of your discussion.

Over the past few years, Community Renewal Society member congregations worked, together with the Coalition to End Money Bond and the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, to eliminate the use of wealth-based pretrial incarceration in Illinois. The Pretrial Fairness Act (HB 3653) passed and was signed into law in February 22, 2021.

Racism and poverty systemically create inequitable disparities that cause generational harm. We seek to educate and eradicate those disparities. CRS has put together this list of resources.

Time and time again, communities across Illinois came together to boldly defend the Pretrial Fairness Act from attempts to repeal it or lessen its impact. In the last few weeks alone, thousands of people filed witness slips, wrote and called their legislators, text and phone banked, and rallied others to take action! The movement’s collective efforts stopped multiple proposals that would have weakened protections for people on electronic monitoring or caged more people awaiting trial.

Join the Coalition to End Money Bond for any or all of the virtual text banking sessions to fight back against attacks on the Pretrial Fairness Act.

Community Renewal Society's Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Waltrina N. Middleton joined with fellow faith leaders in a press conference to call for the passage of H.R. 40. The Act would establish a commission to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans.

We have worked for years with the Coalition to End Money Bond to end cash bond in Illinois. Read the report and check out the fact sheet summarizing the coaliton’s recommendations.

CRS signed on to a letter that reminds our state legislators of our moral and religious imperative to support the passing of the Pretrial Fairness Act on February 22, 2021 without allowing regressive policies to counteract them.

Why reparations now? Racism and poverty systemically create inequitable disparities that cause generational harm. We seek to educate and eradicate those disparities.

Reparations was added as part of the Just Economy and Community Development platform by a vote of the membership in October 2020 and is being launched in 2022 with our Martin Luther King Jr. Faith in Action Assembly. Here are some ways you can take action today!

Community Renewal Society (CRS) member congregations, board members, volunteers and staff joined with 17 community organizations to protest this life-threatening situation and to deliver 62,250 bottles of safe and clean water

On January 1, 2022, portions of the Pretrial Fairness Act will go into effect and expand the rights of people incarcerated in their homes on electronic monitoring (EM).

Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Waltrina Middleton, reflects on all the work we’ve been doing to advocate for social and economic justice and eliminate barriers of race and class over the past year.

Our worlds have been turned upside down in the last 20 months, as we have adapted how we worship, work, educate our children, grocery shop, and so much more. This has also been a time when many of us more fully realized the stark injustice of income inequality and its suffocating impact.

On Friday, July 2, 2021, Superintendent David Brown appeared at Chicago’s City Council to answer questions regarding the Chicago Police Department’s strategy to address gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend. During his remarks, the Superintendent repeatedly fell back on the same false narratives about pretrial justice reforms that the police and City have been using for the last several years.

Over the last several months, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have repeatedly tried to blame pretrial justice reforms for the city’s gun violence without being able to back up their claims with anything more than fear.