Chance The Rapper and Common Appear On Behalf Of Parole Illinois

CHICAGO —Recording industry giants and native Chicagoans Chance the Rapper and Common appeared at a news conference Wednesday outside the Cook County Jail advocating for the passage of Illinois Senate Bill 2333, which would make prisoners eligible for parole after serving at least 20 years in jail. The state ended discretionary parole in 1978.

The news conference was organized by Parole Illinois, a group pushing for the passage of the bill, which comes before state lawmakers in two weeks. The group organized additional rallies in Springfield.

"SB 2333 is a necessary policy that will begin to correct the harms of long-term incarceration in this state and putting an end to negative impacts that incarceration has on our community, family members and the loved ones of those who are incarcerated," Chance the Rapper said. "We need a criminal justice system that reflects the values we want to see in this world."

Common, meanwhile, pointed out that other states do grant parole. The rapper, actor and advocate shared details of conversations he had recently with prisoners in Stateville Correctional Center, where he visited on behalf of his Imagine Justice's Rebirth of Sound program.

"One gentleman said to me, 'imagine being trapped in one act for the rest of your life, the worst act, for the rest of your life,'" Common said. "I thought about that. Now, if that happened for me, I wouldn't be up here."

Speaking to Block Club Chicago, Katrina Burlet, campaign director and operations manager of Parole Illinois, said Illinois lawmakers repealed discretionary parole during a "tough-on-crime era."

The move was made with the idea of providing equal treatment in sentencing. However, Burlet said the new policy quickly began working against Black and Latino people, who were disproportionately affected by new laws that allowed longer sentences.

"So that whole (idea of) 'everyone's going to be released one day' lasted maybe two years before we started stacking on huge amounts of sentencing enhancements and lengthening sentences and adding things that were considered crimes that would be met with prison time, and then truth-in-sentencing, and three strikes laws and like we just stacked it on over last four decades," Burlet said.

Parole Illinois has pointed out that the state does have mandatory supervised release, which often gets confused for discretionary parole because both use parole officers. However, mandatory supervised release is a time period of intense supervision after a person has served their sentence.

At the news conference, Chance the Rapper spoke about what life looks like inside a prison, something he witnessed during a performance he gave at Stateville Correctional Center in 2019 to celebrate seven inmates who had earned college degrees.

The artist said he was greeted by armed guards and rows of men who had their hands and feet shackled.

"To know that after this performance, and after the ceremony, each man would be forced back into his tiny, dilapidated cell for the remainder of that day and for days on end - we need to understand incarceration for what it is: torture."

Another speaker at the news conference was Carmaletta Jones, whose partner Brian Willis, 43, is serving a life sentence he received at the age of 18. Jones said Willis turned his life around in jail, even earning multiple master's degrees. Yet, under current laws, he has no chance of leaving prison.

"It's inhumane," Jones said. "I can't even begin to express to you what it felt like for me, for the judge to tell my best friend in the whole world that he'll never see these streets again, that he'll never walk on real ground again. I can't explain that to you."