Racial Justice Task Force

Final report: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/countyboard/rjtf/1710RJTFReport.pdf

Where do we go from here? CU Indivisible and RJTF Recommendations

N-G Article excerpt on the final report:

Report just the beginning for county's Racial Justice Task Force

More than two years after it was created by the county board, the volunteer Champaign County Racial Justice Task Force discussed its new 31-point report and talked through ways to keep momentum going.

Many of the recommendations offered by the task force require action by the county board, and the three county board members at Thursday's meeting at the Champaign Public Library said the county's tight finances will make wholesale adoption of the ideas difficult.

"There's not a lot of money there. I know they all deserve funding, but there's just not the dollars there to do it," said rural Champaign Republican Jon Rector.

"I know we don't have a lot of money as a county, but the cities, we just have to go to them to approach them about funding as well," said Urbana Democrat Robert King, who chairs the board's Justice and Social Services Committee. "That's where the collaborative effort comes into play. If we want to make some headway, we have to work with our cities and some of the other municipalities."

Task force members and those in the audience said the impetus provided by the group can't be allowed to vanish...

Groups and Organizations: related to or possibly key to implementing RJTF recommendations.

Click on the chart for clickable links or go directly to the criminal justice subgroups for summaries and additional information:

• Before Contact 
• Contact 
• Incarceration 
• Re-Entry:

PATH Printable Champaign County Community Resource Guide

Two groups that would implement and oversee the recommendations are still in the process of being created:

• Restorative and Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (implementation)
• Community Engagement Oversight Commission

Related:
  
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Report: http://cheatsheetcc.blogspot.com/2017/12/justice-and-mental-health-collaboration.html

More updates and links will be posted here as they are created and information is available on them.


Archived Page:

The Task Force recently wrapped up its work and will be presenting their report to the public at the end of the month.

From their facebook event page for November 30th at 6:30pm at the Champaign Public Library:

The Champaign County Racial Justice Task Force has completed its work and wants to share its findings with the public. Community members and community organizations are invited to the Racial Justice Task Force Final Report Release event Thursday, November 30th at 6:30 pm at the Champaign Public Library’s Main Branch. Task Force members will give a brief outline of the findings and recommendations. There will also be a Q&A session and open discussion time to encourage the community to consider next steps for carrying out the recommendations. Light refreshments will be served. The sessions are sponsored by Champaign County ACLU, Champaign County NAACP, and the National Council of African American Men. 

The Task Force's recommendations span seven focus areas created through community input. The report and appendices are publicly accessible through the Champaign County website. The Task Force will formally present its final report to the County Board at the next Committee of the Whole Meeting on Tuesday, November 14 at 6:30 P.M. in the Lyle Shields Meeting Room at the Brookens Administrative Center.

What was it?

"The Champaign County Board seeks to take positive steps to address the issue of racial disparity in the jail population and in the criminal justice system more broadly. The Racial Justice Task Force will report its findings, including a list of recommended actions and means for implementation, as well as further research to address the issues of racial disparity, to the Champaign County Board."

It was until recently on an extended term in that it exists per County Board Resolutions (the direct links to those resolutions appear broken atm). They are at the end of their existence as a legal entity and are finishing up their report to the County Board and the community as a whole. The October 12th meeting was, for example, a lot of editing and discussion of content for the introduction of that report and work to do before the final meeting. More on that meeting here.

The main page is here: http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/meetings_RJTF.php

And their Resource Page looks like it has a lot of helpful data and information that one can quickly peruse and click.

It seems obvious now, but I missed the upcoming schedule the first couple scrolls through it. It was under the Extended Term Meeting Schedule link for the most recent schedule:

I'm going to try to attend and get more information to help present more information on about what it is, what it does, and accessibility. For other folks who want to check it out:

Meetings are live streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/champco1776 This is an offsite linkThis is an offsite link.

Older meetings appear on a YouTube link off the above link, but not recently updated: https://www.youtube.com/user/ChampaignCountyIL

Resources:

October 12, 2017 Meeting Notes here

Further information on Build Programs Not Jails that is a local group that participated with the task force and deals with many of the issues and topics the task force was addressing.
Their main website is here: https://programsnotjails.com/