News & Updates

Beginning on February 13 and throughout 2023, Chicago’s WTTW’s FIRSTHAND: LIFE AFTER PRISON will look at the challenges facing returning citizens as they try to reintegrate back into society while carrying the stigma of a criminal record. This 5-part documentary will focus on the firsthand perspectives of people facing critical issues in Chicago. People can visit wttw.com/firsthand on February 13,

The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to prosecute people for failing to register even when their state no longer requires nor allows them to do so. According to Reason.com, “Someone who fails to meet these requirements and travels outside his state can be charged with a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.  At trial, the

A Saudi citizen enters his country’s consulate to make a notice of marriage and is instead held against his will, murdered, and dismembered. He was said to be an enemy of the state, no matter where he lived. An American citizen enters her country’s consulate to make a similar notice. She survives. But her passport is revoked and then reissued

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a rare spate of high-profile child abductions and murders, mostly sexual in nature, terrified America. With constant media coverage, parents across the country were easily led to believe that their children could be in imminent danger. As demands from the public, as well as a few prominent parents of missing or murdered children

Scammers are focusing on a new vulnerable population — sex offenders. Beaumont Police Department spokesperson Carol Riley said the department has seen seven cases of attempted or completed scams on area sex offenders. “A lot of their information and registration (as a sex offender) is public,” Riley said. That makes them an easy target for those looking to profit off

Thousands of people in Chicago are on a criminal conviction registry, including registries for gun crimes, sex offenses and murder and violence against youth. People on the registry have to show up yearly, quarterly or weekly or risk getting locked-up. But WBEZ has found men are repeatedly being turned away because of staffing shortages in the Chicago Police Department’s registry