Children's Best Interest Project

06/01/2026

We are offering free Know Your Rights webinars to Illinois organizations, service providers, social workers, peer support groups, parent support groups and recovery groups on the Children's Best Interest Act. It requires courts to consider children's needs when making decisions about their parents' sentences or pretrial release. We are focusing especially on groups in Lake County, Jackson County, McHenry County, Winnebago County, Peoria County, and St. Clair County, but any Illinois group is eligible.
Parent-child separation causes trauma that can mean lasting health and emotional problems into adulthood. Illinois saw a 30% spike in women's prison admissions in 2025, with no similar increase in women's crimes, and 2/3 of women were locked up for minor class 3 or class 4 felonies. This law can prevent unnecessary family separation, but only if people know about it. We have won 186 years of time saved for parents so far, just in cases we worked with directly. For more information, email: [email protected]

05/31/2026

Urgent - the Illinois budget is being voted on today. Illinois friends, please contact your legislators now, using the links below.
There was a 30% spike in women's admissions to prison last year, with no similar increase in crime. Without funding for pretrial services, it's more likely that moms will take a bad plea deal in hopes of getting home to their kids. These funds also help prevent prison overcrowding and the preventable deaths from lack of medical care. Please act now.

🚨Save the Pretrial Success Act🚨

The Pretrial Success Grants Program has been providing essential support for people awaiting trial but new funding is not currently in the state budget. If the General Assembly doesn’t add it to the budget today, this vital program will no longer exist.

Please call your State Senator and State Representative as soon as possible to ask that they continue to fund pretrial success! Find your legislators by visiting bit.ly/LookUpLegislators

Last year, the Illinois legislature funded the creation of the Pretrial Success Grant Program as a pilot program in five counties. The Pretrial Success Grant Program is bolstering the success of people who are released pretrial, thanks to the Pretrial Fairness Act, by expanding access to vital services like transportation and child care so they can attend court and providing resources for mental health, substance use disorder and other needs.

This program needs funding in order to survive. Right now, there is no new funding for the Pretrial Success Act in the budget. The deadline to pass a budget is midnight tonight, so this is our very last chance to convince our legislators to give this program the funding it needs to keep succeeding.

Look up your State Senator and State Representative’s Springfield phone numbers (the number with the 217 area code), and give them a quick call RIGHT NOW to ask that they provide $2.5 million in new funding to keep the Pretrial Success Grants Program going.

Find your legislators by visiting bit.ly/LookUpLegislators

05/28/2026

Urge your state lawmakers to support the removal of the $900million line item for the rebuilds of Stateville and Logan Correctional Centers from the Capital Development Budget this legislative session. This rebuild proposal or “RISE IDOC”, is a high-cost, low-impact project, it will not solve th...

05/08/2026

Tomorrow!

Saturday, May 9! Join us from 1 - 3 p.m. on the grassy median across from the Cook County jail, about two blocks south of the visitors' gate. There will be snacks and water, great activities for kids including the inimitable Jennifer Viets, and amazing speakers: Emmanuel Andre, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Shanice Page, criminalized survivor who has been freed, Krystle Hite-Randall for Children's Best Interest Project, Public Defender Sharone Mitchell (tentative), Ana Navarro from Organized Communities Against Deportation, Chez Rumpf from Love and Protect, Celia Colon from Giving Others Dreams, and speakers from the Free Keshia Golden campaign, Free Vanessa Sanders campaign, Palestinian Feminist Collective, and MAMAS. 12 organizations will host resource tables.
Two things to know: 1. The spring bridge lifts are happening, so if you take Lake Shore Drive from the north side to the Jail, budget 15-20 minutes extra drive time. 2. We wish we had bathrooms but we don't. Check out a nearby restaurant or McDonald's to use before or after.

05/06/2026

Friends, if you live and vote in Illinois please consider filing a witness slip to support this bill that will fund Pretrial Services. People stuck in jail often make desperate decisions to accept unfair plea deals, and women's admissions to prison spiked 30% last year with no such spike in crime (See Loyola Chicago's Center for Criminal Justice report). Use "self" in the appropriate sections to show that you are doing this on your own behalf, unless you are authorized to file a witness slip for an organization or business. We are safer when parents are home with their children and maintaining employment while awaiting trial.

05/03/2026

Saturday, May 9! Join us from 1 - 3 p.m. on the grassy median across from the Cook County jail, about two blocks south of the visitors' gate. There will be snacks and water, great activities for kids including the inimitable Jennifer Viets, and amazing speakers: Emmanuel Andre, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Shanice Page, criminalized survivor who has been freed, Krystle Hite-Randall for Children's Best Interest Project, Public Defender Sharone Mitchell (tentative), Ana Navarro from Organized Communities Against Deportation, Chez Rumpf from Love and Protect, Celia Colon from Giving Others Dreams, and speakers from the Free Keshia Golden campaign, Free Vanessa Sanders campaign, Palestinian Feminist Collective, and MAMAS. 12 organizations will host resource tables.
Two things to know: 1. The spring bridge lifts are happening, so if you take Lake Shore Drive from the north side to the Jail, budget 15-20 minutes extra drive time. 2. We wish we had bathrooms but we don't. Check out a nearby restaurant or McDonald's to use before or after.

05/03/2026

It was such a joy to have Advisory Board member Lady Celia Colon address the Unitarian Church of Evanston today about the Children's Best Interest Project and why our work is crucial. She was compelling and brilliant.

12/10/2025

Please consider the children who are missing their parents this holiday season. Help out using the QR code.

12/10/2025

Brilliant, compelling call to the Gov and IDOC to use the Rapid Response plan for Logan and release as many as possible as soon as possible from the unlivable conditions they are confined in. Be patient with a few interruptions, listen to the end. Chez Rumpf, Colette Payne, Ana Navarro, Jimmy Soto, Rev. Jason Lydon, and others.
Listen here:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSDGNdOiTXh/