ACLU of Illinois Criminal Justice Policy Attorney Benjamin Ruddell was quoted on a segment of the Morning Shift on WBEZ during a discussion about releasing low-level offenders from prison as a way to reduce overincarceration rates. Ruddell states that in order to effectively reduce the prison population, Illinois would need to consider ways to reduce sentences for more serious offenders:

Low-level drug offenders, while they constitute a high percentage of the admissions to DOC, they don't spend a lot of time there. The biggest savings and the biggest decarceration impact where we can safely reduce the amount of incarceration are in the people serving longer sentences. What we know is that a long sentence often doesn't need to be as long as it is in order to provide punishment, incapacitation and the other things that we're trying to achieve by sentencing people to prison.

You can listen to the segment here.

State Representative Peter Breen has filed legislation that would change the law that allows individuals to donate their bodies to science after they die to exempt the donation of fetal tissue, the Daily Herald reports. The measure comes in light of the attacks from anti-abortion activists against Planned Parenthood regarding the videos released that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue donation. The Daily Herald spoke with the director of the ACLU of Illinois' Reproductive Rights Project, Lorie Chaiten:

"If a woman chooses to donate fetal tissue for important medical research, her decision should be respected and accommodated when possible, just as it is in other health care circumstances," said Lorie Chaiten, director of ACLU's Reproductive Rights Project.

Read the entire article.