women+in+the+world+fieldwork+day+February

Went to Community Renewal Society in the loop, talked with Alex Wiesendanger, who's running the Children of the Incarcerated Campaign. Alex started out by asking us to identify ourselves and our state reps...we failed on the latter...oops! We found out tthat a greater percentage of our population are in U. S. jails now than there were in S. Africa in the height of Apartheid, in China under Mao, and in Soviet Russia under Stalin. We found out that in Illinois, community organizations are trying to secure promises in Illinois Department of Corrections that will enable more parent-child contact -- currently the rule prohibits more than 2 children from visiting at a time; very little physical contact is allowed parent-child, some other limits -- Director Randle agreed to change these rules, but has gone back on the promises. My group is excited about talking to the legislators about pushing IDOC on their promises. More soon...