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It’s Monday. Ease into the week with the latest stories from WTTW News. |
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(WTTW News) |
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A new report aims to shed light on the structural barriers fueling the cycle of incarceration in North Lawndale on Chicago’s West Side, while also offering a potential blueprint on what it takes to improve outcomes for people who were formerly incarcerated.
The report is a collaboration of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago and the North Lawndale Employment Network.
The report looks at 20 years of data to examine systemic economic barriers in North Lawndale and the role community-based reentry and work development programs — along with justice reform and social-impact businesses — can play in helping lower recidivism rates.
“Oftentimes, people are returning to the same economic and social environments that they left,” North Lawndale Employment Network President and CEO Brenda Palms said. “If you come back to a neighborhood where you are still very much struggling with all the ills and social challenges of poverty, then you’re really likely to fall back into some old habits. What we try to do is to create a new support system for people, connect them to support services.”
Among the main findings of the report were:
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The cumulative correctional costs for people who reoffend in North Lawndale over the course of two decades exceeded $1 billion for Illinois taxpayers.
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North Lawndale remains significantly more disadvantaged than Chicago as a whole with the neighborhood experiencing high poverty, high unemployment, low income and high job leakage, or residents working outside the neighborhood.
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For every 10 people enrolled as North Lawndale Employment Network clients, $405,000 in annual incarceration costs are diverted for Illinois taxpayers.
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Recidivism can be lowered in a cost-effective way through a combination of “fair chance hiring” policies and community-based programs that focus on all the needs of individuals reentering their communities.
Leslie Williams, a program graduate of the North Lawndale Employment Network, currently works as a maintenance technician at the organization and runs her own cleaning business. She entered prison at 19 and was incarcerated for 23 years for a murder conviction.
Williams said the biggest barriers she faced after she was released were employment and housing. Williams credits the North Lawndale Employment Network with helping her gain work experience and helping her learn how to write grants, how to use the computer and how to use her voice.
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John C. Reilly appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Oct. 22, 2026. (WTTW News) |
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Actor John C. Reilly has had a storied career — from pulling at people’s heart strings in the film adaptation of the musical “Chicago” to making comedy classics like “Step Brothers.” Now, he’s touring with his own vaudeville show aptly named “Mister Romantic.”
Reilly calls it an “emotional magic show.” Each performance, the titular character Mister Romantic emerges from a steamer trunk with only the knowledge that he’s supposed to perform for the audience and find someone that night to love him forever. That pursuit, however, will always prove futile and so the “eternal quest” continues.
“It sounds kind of silly maybe at first, like talking about being in love or trying to get them to fall in love with you,” Reilly said. “But when you talk about what love is and could you love someone forever, the conversation gets surprisingly deep really fast. But I keep it really light.”
Mister Romantic serenades audience members with songs Reilly has collected over the years like “What’ll I Do” by Irving Berlin and the classic jazz standard “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” There are also numbers from the Great American Songbook, performed alongside his band filled with Grammy-nominated musicians.
The character draws from Reilly’s experience playing Amos Hart in “Chicago.” Both Hart and Romantic share a vaudevillian sensibility and longing for love.
“One of the people who inspired me to do this show was my mom,” Reilly said. “She taught me a lot of these songs. It’s really like carrying on her mission. My mom was a really loving person who thought of everyone first all the time before herself. So it was a selfless mission she was on, and she’s definitely passed it on to me.”
“Mister Romantic” will be at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre from Dec. 10-13. |
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An image captured by a Chicago Police Department officer’s body-worn camera shows Officer Aubrey Webb, right, engaged in a verbal altercation with a man he and four other officers searched on Feb. 23, 2024. (Civilian Office of Police Accountability) |
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Four of the five Chicago police officers who pulled over Dexter Reed and killed him in a barrage of gunfire after he fired at officers in March 2024 violated the constitutional rights of another Chicagoan less than a month before the fatal shooting and should be suspended, the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct and former Supt. Larry Snelling agreed, according to records published Thursday.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has not yet released the results of its probe into the March 21, 2024, traffic stop of Reed or the shooting that killed him, records show. Four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed, hitting him 13 times, shortly after Reed shot and wounded a fifth officer, according to a preliminary investigation by the agency better known as COPA.
Investigators had already determined that the tactical team that stopped Reed improperly stopped and searched Chicagoans during three separate traffic stops on Sept. 21, 2023, March 1, 2024, and March 6, 2024, records show.
COPA determined that Officers Aubrey Webb, Thomas Spanos, Victor Pacheco and Gregory Saint-Louis improperly stopped and searched a Black man outside his Homan Square home in February 2024, and recommended that each be suspended for up to 30 days, records show.
Snelling agreed with COPA’s findings, but recommended that Webb be suspended for 20 days, Spanos for seven days, Pacheco for five days and Saint-Louis for three days, records show. |
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More From WTTW News:
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Third-party candidate Whitfield Harrington Jr. is running for the U.S. Senate as the nominee for the American Center Party, which he calls a middle ground for voters unsatisfied with polarizing politics. A pastor and former financial services professional, he joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss his campaign, immigration enforcement and free community college.
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Back in the Day: October 26, 1921 - The Chicago Theatre Opens
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The Chicago Theatre opened its doors for the first time 105 years ago today. Designed by Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp, the $4 million structure at State and Lake Streets was the flagship movie theater owned by the Balaban and Katz theater chain. It boasts a Neo-Baroque French Revival style and has become an unofficial emblem of the city. From its initial run as a movie theater, the space has evolved to host concerts, comedy, dance and other performances. It's been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979 and is now owned by Madison Square Garden Inc. |
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This Week's Civic Events and Meetings |
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Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government.
“News Night” — Mouse Arts & Letters Club
At the beginning of 2026, WTTW News investigative reporter Blair Paddock and journalist Morley Musick opened Mouse Arts & Letters Club, a social club for writers, poets, creatives and more in Bridgeport. It aims to be a “friendly space that defies national borders, political reaction and cultural philistinism while allowing you to enjoy and partake in the best cultural programs and projects.” The idea for the space began with “News Night,” a series where “journalists will each explain a story they’ve worked on recently, followed by audience questions, comments and concerns.” This installment, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, features ProPublica’s Jennifer Smith Richards, Chalkbeat’s Reema Amin and WIRED’s Ali Winston. It’s free and open to the public, and you can find more info here.
WTTW
On Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6 p.m., join WTTW and award-winning filmmaker Lynn Novick at Malcolm X College Auditorium for a preview and discussion of her new film “Crime and Punishment in America.” The four-part, eight-hour docuseries, executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard, and narrated by Keith David, will premiere over four consecutive nights on all WTTW platforms beginning Monday, Nov. 16. Novick’s credits with her colleague Ken Burns include “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” “Hemingway,” “The Vietnam War,” “Baseball,” “Jazz,” “Frank Lloyd Wright,” “The War” and “Prohibition.” Immediately following the screening, Brandis Friedman, chief correspondent and anchor for “Chicago Tonight,” will moderate a conversation with Novick and other special guests. For more info and RSVP, click here. |
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What's the most underrated Chicago suburb? Tell us why. |
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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