Departments have turned to community groups to help break through cultural barriers that have contributed to wide gaps in tree coverage, a critical public health measure
Investigating Responses
Posted inInvestigating Responses, Investigations
Listen: Mental Health Courts Offer People Facing Prison an Imperfect Alternative
A new podcast episode revisits a recent investigation of mental health courts by Illinois Answers and Mindsite News.
Posted inInvestigating Responses
A Proposed Law Would Push Wealthy Suburbs to Build More Affordable Housing. Mayors Are Pushing Back.
The effort to sharpen the state’s Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act is one of multiple bills pending in Springfield that aim to boost housing construction and widen affordability.
Posted inInvestigating Responses
What to know about your county’s mental health court
This story is a collaboration between Illinois Answers and the Chicago bureau of MindSite News. Mental health courts have proliferated across Illinois in recent decades. Now, the state has 31 courts across […]
Posted inInvestigating Responses
Prison or treatment? Thousands participate in mental health courts. Half graduate — and millions are left out
This story is a collaboration between Illinois Answers and the Chicago bureau of MindSite News; sign up to receive their newsletter here. Bloomington native Shayla Woodworth had struggled with mental illness and […]
Posted inInvestigating Responses
Illinois’ Low-Cost Library Program Takes on the Justice Gap
A pilot program in 18 libraries across nine counties trains staff to help residents navigate civil court proceedings, offering a lifeline in communities where legal aid and public transit are scarce.
Posted inInvestigating Responses
Illinois Is Turning to Local Jails to Treat Mentally Ill Defendants. Some Early Results Offer Hope — and Warnings
It’s not often that Menard County Jail has a detainee who has been found unfit for trial. The jail, just north of Springfield, is small. With a census that can […]
Posted inInvestigating Responses
These Counties Spend Transit Tax Money on Ride Services. They’re Lifelines for Thousands of Residents
Fledgling dial-a-ride networks are filling gaps in public transit in the collar counties, but they struggle to meet demand.
Posted inInvestigating Responses
Wasted Waters: How Southern Illinois is Coping with Decades of Sewage Flooding… and Why it Still Isn’t Solved.
Five dozen communities in Southern Illinois account for a third of the reported sanitary sewer overflows in the state in the last decade. But with low revenues, population declines, and bureaucratic delays, solutions are hard to come by. Meanwhile, residents face property damage flooded yards and basements and governments that still haven’t fixed the problem.
Posted inInvestigating Responses
Explainer: What is a sanitary sewer overflow?
Sanitary sewer overflows, SSOs, are a release of untreated or partially treated waste from a city sewer. Sanitary sewer overflows are illegal. But when normal systems become overloaded through heavy rain or a larger load from an increasing population, SSOs occur.
