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