Liberatory Policy Work for Systemic Change

In 2024, we experienced a great victory when a group of United Nations Special Rapporteurs supported our policy work by pressuring the state of Illinois to free our children and other incarcerated survivors of forced confessions achieved by Chicago police through torture and frame-ups.  Covered by CBS News and the Guardian, this support has amplified our efforts to bring our kidnapped children home. 

Between 2019 and 2024, Mothers Of The Kidnapped:

• Initiated a partnership with the United Nations.
• Submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Racial Discrimination about Chicago’s ongoing problem of police torture and frame-ups.
• Highlighted the impact of police violence on our lives and the lives of our incarcerated children, and requested the UN’s support.
• Worked with the UN to conduct their own investigation of Chicago police torture and forced confessions enacted on our loved ones and other survivors.

As MOK Denise Spencer, whose son has been imprisoned since 1999 for a murder he did not commit, told CBS News:

The torture of my then-19-year-old son Michael Carter experienced at the hands of Chicago Police isn't just an allegation—I witnessed it. I came in on them beating him up. When they lock our children up, we’re being tortured with them because we're walking in this walk with them.

As a result of our work together, in 2024, the UN Special Rapporteurs on Racial Discrimination and Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent:

• Submitted a “Communication” to the federal government and state of Illinois demanding action.
• Determined that the state of Illinois and the federal government must address lives stolen by systemic racist police violence in Chicago.
• Underscored that these actions are rooted in systemic racism especially against Black and Latiné communities with devastating consequences on families and society.
• Urged comprehensive measures be taken by federal, state, and local authorities; the experts emphasized the imperative of addressing past wrongs and implementing robust safeguards to prevent future abuses. 
• Called on all stakeholders to prioritize justice, accountability, and equitable access to remedies for affected individuals and communities. 

We continue to work to demand the Governor and State’s Attorney respond to the United Nations and take specific & measurable action to rectify and repair these injustices, while ending systemic brutality and ensuring these injustices do not continue or repeat.

‍Watch our October 2024 press conference

Our daily lives are dramatically shaped by the current conditions in Illinois prisons and the legal system, so while we work to ultimately abolish all forms of state violence, it is vital that we also fight to change policy and create systems of accountability that impact us NOW.  This often includes pressuring elected officials: calling on the Governor to grant clemencies, the State’s Attorney to move to vacate convictions, and legislators to stop policies that cause further harm to our kids and communities, and to implement ways of bringing people home.  We bring a feminist, reproductive justice approach to the struggle to free police violence survivors that insists that mamas and our incarcerated loved ones are both survivors of the carceral system. This is why when movements demand, “Free them all!” we also shout, “Free us all!”

Currently, we are part of grassroots organizing against a proposed move to digitize mail in the IL prisons- meaning that our kids won’t receive the actual cards, letters and photos we send them.  Mail is a lifeline connecting us, and we cannot allow this to pass!  As we know from experience, once the IDOC takes something away, they aren’t giving it back.  You can learn more and take action using this toolkit, and follow MAMAS’ social media for updates.

There is also proposed legislation in IL that will give people more credit for time served, helping us to bring our kids home sooner, without having to go back through the court system or be granted clemency. Often, legislation to get people out of prison excludes certain groups of people, whether they are wrongfully convicted or not. We are monitoring these bills’ movement, and will weigh-in to help shape what they look like.