A Washington-based criminal justice reform group says Illinois’ “extreme” sentencing practices have resulted in a nearly fourfold increase in the state’s prison population since the early 1970s.
Many of those inmates are elderly, and more than 60% of the people in Illinois serving life sentences or prison terms of 15 to 40 years are Black even though African Americans make up less than 15% of the state’s population, FAMM says in a report being released Thursday.
