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    Shannon Heffernan

    Shannon Heffernan is a criminal justice reporter for WBEZ. Follow her @shannon_h

    Prisons and Jails
    Illustration of a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit lying in a hospital bed. Shadows of bars and bars on the windows indicate that they are in prison.

    Dying and disabled Illinois prisoners kept behind bars, despite new medical release law

    By Carlos Ballesteros, Shannon Heffernan (WBEZ) and Amy Qin (WBEZ) | August 30, 2023

    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.

    News

    Cook County has been giving felony records to people who should not have them

    By Shannon Heffernan (WBEZ) | May 17, 2023

    For at least three years, a data error has caused chaos in the lives of people who were promised a clean record if they did probation.

    Prisons and Jails

    The way prisoners flag guard abuse, inadequate health care and unsanitary conditions is broken

    By Shannon Heffernan (WBEZ) | December 3, 2020

    Prisoners rely on grievances as an early-warning system for dangerous conditions, from poor medical care to abuse. But in Illinois, experts say the system is sputtering, with little oversight, resulting in injuries to prisoners, according to an investigation by WBEZ and ProPublica.

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    Injustice Watch is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization that conducts in-depth research exposing institutional failures that obstruct justice and equality.

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