Cure Illinois

02/22/2025

We need more

About 20,000 people leave Illinois prisons each year. 40% will return within three years. Can new investments in reentry help keep them out?

05/06/2024

When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence
When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence

The downward spiral of one inmate, Markus Johnson, shows the larger failures of the nation’s prisons to care for the mentally ill.

03/07/2024

ILLINOIS HB2045

please read Denise and jeff Bartik story.
Denise shared with state representatives. Then join our movement and call legislator and governor to support elder bill.
we exxpect a vote in next weeks. we need 60 votes and we have them now but cant lose any.
Please share widely especially on social media and let me know if want to do
'Let our reformed elders GO!!!


Dear Rep. Williams,

Thank you for taking a few minutes to talk with me and my colleague Bill Ryan about the HB2045 Elderly Parole bill yesterday. I want to share my husband’s story with you.
My husband has a life without parole sentence for a murder he committed over 45 years ago. He was 22 years old and high on drugs at the time. He had remorse and turned himself in to the police when he was not even a suspect in the murder. How many people do that! He turned his life around and now encourages and serves the other inmates by tutoring those who are studying for their GEDs, helping Hispanics understand their legal mail, checking up on sick inmates to see if they need anything, and praying for inmates and their families. He has held a job for most of his incarceration so he has served his community in that way as well. He is respectful to guards. He attends worship services when they are available. He no longer uses drugs or alcohol. He has been rehabilitated and is no longer a threat to society. He has a wife who loves him (me) and would provide for his needs if he were to come home. Four of the victim’s family members have written letters of support for my husband’s release.



Judges have a hard decision at the time of sentencing. They rule at one point in time and have to GUESS whether a convicted person can be rehabilitated. How can anyone GUESS at that person’s future with any accuracy? Judges are human and they can be wrong. That is what has happened to my husband. And due to an omission in his early motions for appeal after his trial, where the Public Defender did not list any arguments he wanted to bring up on appeal, my husband has never been able to appeal his sentence. On top of that, he refused to file a motion of ineffective counsel because he believes that the Public Defender saved his life from a death sentence. He did not want to ruin the guy’s career with a black mark.
So, my husband is stuck. The goal of the State of Illinois is to restore an offender to useful citizenship, per our state constitution.
Illinois needs to remember it's roots.
Illinois is warehousing human beings that have been rehabilitated and pose no threat to society.
Our taxes are paying for lifers’ housing, meals, and the meager medical attention, instead of education, social services, police, and other services.
We are a country founded on second chances.
People change



Denise Bartik

09/15/2023

Something we forget, written in the 50's, has anything changed?

Bill Lee (dubbing John Kerr) sings "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" from the 1958 film of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC.CONNECT WITH RODGERS & HAM...

09/05/2023

. A fool was just a fool, but a fool in the White House was the most dangerous person in the world.

09/03/2023

This makes sense
https://psychhub.com/our-people #:~:text=MARJORIE%20MORRISON&text=A%20visionary%20and%20passionate%20pioneer,education%20and%20connection%20to%20care.

Psych Hub leadership team and employees are committed to a personalized, preventive, and effective approach to mental health education and care.

08/31/2023

Where is the humanity
What does this tell us about who we are?

The Joe Coleman Medical Release Act was expected to have freed hundreds of terminally ill and medically incapacitated prisoners in Illinois by now. But only a few dozen have been released, an investigation from Injustice Watch and WBEZ reveals.

08/10/2023

Please sign it is our bodies
What if the law said men had to have short hair and no facial hair

Ohio Republicans are so afraid of the voters passing a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights that they tried making it harder for voters to have their say. The good news? They failed....

08/05/2023

The water is contaminated at the prisons. It is so contaminated that it effects on babies born to pregnant women is same as lead poisoning per EPA.

How can we expect released prisoners to not be mad when living in such a sub-minimal environment, they want to "kick the dog" because they have spent the last years being kicked.
Recidivion is caused by our system.

Illinois has another headache.

07/31/2023

Who are the real criminals here in the United States

In the United States, more than 20 million individuals have substance use disorders (SUDs)—not including individuals with more mild or moderate substance use and misuse. Of those with SUDs, just over 10 percent ultimately receive treatment. On average, costs incurred in the United States from alco...

07/30/2023

Does everyone realize we are talking about human beings some of whom actually the majority of whom will be out of these prison soon

Prison repairs mount A consulting firm reports that Illinois prisons are falling apart and it will cost the state billions of dollars to make the repairs. Recommendations from the consulting firm CGL inc...

07/29/2023

I hope this law has the teeth to change returning citizens from a number to a name

A new law in Illinois aims to give former inmates a better chance to succeed outside of prison and reduce the likelihood that they'll be sent back.