Chicagoans in Custody Now Have Guaranteed Access to Attorneys and Family Calls
You helped us End Incommunicado Detention!
Thanks to the work of brave activists and youth, Chicago police must cease their illegal and longstanding practice of incommunicado detention.
For decades, CPD routinely denied Chicagoans the right to call loved ones and attorneys while in custody – endangering the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people and increasing the likelihood of false and coerced confessions and wrongful incarceration.
For the last two years, our attorneys have co-counseled a lawsuit against the City of Chicago on behalf of a number of community, activist, and legal groups whose members’ rights were violated during the 2020 George Floyd protests.
These rights are now guaranteed to all Chicago detainees no longer than 3 hours after being placed in custody. CPD is also installing phones and private rooms throughout its district stations, detective areas, and investigative facilities—including phones in interrogation rooms.
“The efforts of the plaintiff organizations in #Letusbreathe v. Chicago have created a seismic shift, to a world where there is a meaningful route to ending incommunicado detention in this city. While the legacy of the 2020 uprising remains in careful balance, one change is now set in stone—people arrested in Chicago are going to get access to their lawyers, and to phone calls, and if they don’t, the city will be held accountable.”
Lawyers will soon be able to consult with clients, alone and in private, via telephone, something that historically has been rejected by CPD and a barrier to legal representation. CPD will also post signage about a detainee’s legal right to counsel in various places throughout police stations, including interrogation rooms.
We will be part of a team that monitors and, if necessary, enforces the city’s compliance with the terms of the agreement designed to defend the rights of the people.
FDLA has fought to end incommunicado detention for decades through direct action, popular education, and legislative advocacy. This is a victory that would not be possible without the support of people like you for our work. We thank you for continuing to allow us to provide free legal counsel and advocacy.
The director of our Civil Rights Clinic, Daniel Massoglia recently published an op-ed in the Chicago Reader about the victory. Read it here.
Our Plaintiffs include: #LetUsBreathe Collective, the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Stop Chicago, UMedics, The National Lawyers Guild Chicago and GoodKids MadCity. Each organization has members who were detained and denied their right to make a phone call or see their attorneys – or had attorneys who were denied access to clients in custody.
First Defense Legal Aid attorneys represented the plaintiffs alongside lawyers from the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and the People’s Law Office.
Learn more about the suit here.
For 24/7/365 connections to community and legal resources, free stationhouse representation by the public defenders within the first 48-72 hours of arrest, and free legal aid for victims of police abuse, call all our Help Not Jail Hotline at 1-800-LAW-REP4 (1-800-529-7374).