Antwaun Readus Sr. started to choke up at the podium as he described how he has been called upon to use his barbering skills to prepare as many as 10 Black adolescents and young men for casket viewings after they became victims of violence.
“Do you know how hard it is to sit here and mentor these kids and then cut their damn heads when they die?” Readus asked Springfield City Council members Oct. 29.
Readus, a barber at First Class Barbershop, 100 N. Wesley St., and vice president of the nonprofit Better Life Better Living for Kidz, pleaded at the council meeting for approval of a $30,000 loan from the city for the financially strapped but respected organization.
More youth programs are needed to intervene in the lives of young people to prevent them from becoming victims or perpetrators of crime, he said. The 43-year-old Springfield native was frustrated by bureaucratic delays that had prevented Better Life from getting access to a $215,000 grant awarded to the group a year ago.
The grant requires recipients to spend their own money up front and then be reimbursed, so Readus said the no-interest loan – an unusual arrangement for the city to sanction – was essential for the group to start the flow of grant funds and begin expanding its recreational and educational programs for young people.
Though they eventually received council approval for their $30,000 loans, representatives of Better Life and One in a Million Inc., the other grassroots nonprofit awarded a $215,000 grant, expressed frustration at the lack of urgency to address some of the root causes of crime in Springfield.
There has been plenty of blame to go around for a 9.3% increase in overall crime in Springfield from Jan. 1 through Oct. 31 compared with the same time period a year ago. Included in the numbers are homicides, which rose from five in 2023 to nine so far this year in Springfield. Between 2018 and 2022, there were between seven and 11 homicide victims each year.
Emotions have flared at a time when relations between the public and the Springfield-area police have become heated in the wake of the nationally publicized July 6 police-involved shooting death of Sonya Massey in her home in unincorporated Woodside Township, just outside the city.
Police, the public and various groups trying to address crime and policing have voiced various frustrations but say they are determined to make progress.
More juveniles and adults released following arrests
In response to some of the most recent concerns, this time aired by Ward 8 Ald. Erin Conley about people injured by shootings in her mostly west side ward, Springfield Police Chief Kenneth Scarlette recently outlined for council members and Illinois Times what he sees as the main reasons for the 11.3% increase in crimes against property and 4.8% increase in violent crimes and other crimes against persons.
First, he said the Sangamon County Juvenile Detention Center on South Dirksen Parkway remains closed after a Sept. 30, 2023, incident in which a 17-year-old inmate somehow obtained a handgun, tried to escape with a hostage and was shot to death as he left the facility.
Illinois State Police investigated the incident and haven’t been able to determine how the gun got into the hands of Camren Marcelis Darden, the inmate who died.
County officials are working with 7th Judicial Circuit judges who oversee the center to restaff and reopen the center with additional security measures, but a reopening date hasn’t been set.
In the meantime, juveniles whose alleged offenses made them eligible for detainment and would have been held without bail at the center for days or weeks often have been released to parents or on their own with electronic monitoring, Scarlette told Illinois Times. In those situations, there were no beds available for them in any other juvenile detention center in Illinois, he said.
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Limited capacity in juvenile detention centers statewide
According to Deputy Police Chief Andrew Dodd, there were 48 incidents in Springfield involving 56 juveniles between July 1 and Oct. 31 in which juveniles were eligible and should have been detained but had to be released because of the unavailability of the Juvenile Detention Center in Springfield and similar facilities elsewhere in the state.
Eight of the 56 juveniles were arrested in gun-related cases, and seven were arrested in possession of stolen vehicle cases, Dodd said.
Scarlette didn’t have a specific count of when those juveniles allegedly committed more crimes after being released to parents or put on electronic monitoring rather than being incarcerated, but he said there were several examples of additional arrests.
“To me, that certainly emboldens and empowers these individuals to think that they’re not necessarily being held accountable, and they go out and continue to commit multiple offenses over and over and over again,” Scarlette said.
Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory said he doesn’t want to see the Juvenile Detention Center reopen until police discover how a gun got into the center and into the hands of an inmate.
Scarlette said it sometimes takes a long time to solve a case like that. The case may never be solved, he said, but he is confident state police did their best, and the community will benefit when the center is reopened.
Some of the increase in crime is a function of SPD’s ability to hire additional police officers and put them on the street to arrest more people on drugs and illegal weapons charges, Scarlette said.
During 2021 and 2022, 88 officers were assigned to “field operations” and handled general calls for service at all hours of the day and night in Springfield’s 77 square miles, Scarlette said. That number has risen to 117 or 118 since then, he said.
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Crime on the rise in Sangamon County
Scarlette said the elimination of cash bail in Illinois on Sept. 18, 2023, also is feeding the increase in crime.
The chief didn’t have statistics, but anecdotal evidence suggests what he called habitual offenders, mostly charged with property crimes but some crimes of violence, are being released rather than detained because the General Assembly hasn’t given judges enough discretion to hold certain people in jail after their arrest and while their criminal cases proceed in court.
“What I do see are the same names over and over committing very similar offenses” within a short period of time after release, Scarlette said.
The situation means more alleged offenders are back on the street, rather than waiting while family members cobble together money for bail, and are able to commit more crimes, Deputy Chief Joshua Stuenkel said.
The situation also reduces the deterrent effect associated with potential time in jail, Scarlette said.
“The criminal element feels more emboldened, feels more empowered, feels as if there’s no (repercussions) for committing illegal acts,” he said.
The situation affects the morale of detectives and other officers, he said, noting that the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and other law-enforcement groups are working on proposals for tweaking the Pretrial Fairness Act to give judges more discretion.
It’s hard to know how many people would have made bail quickly, been released and committed more crimes under the previous bail system, Stuenkel said. But people arrested again after posting bail typically would be required to post a higher bail the second time, he said.
On the other hand, prosecutors have more legal ammunition to argue in favor of detention if someone released under the no-cash bail system is arrested again.
Out of 4,169 arrests made by the Springfield Police Department from January through October, prosecutors asked for those arrested to be detained 157 times, and 118 detentions were approved by local judges, representing 75% of requests.
That compares with a 62% success rate for prosecutors seeking detentions of people arrested by Springfield police from Sept. 18, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023.
The Pretrial Fairness Act has led to a reduction in average jail populations in Sangamon County and other counties throughout the state. But the law’s impact on crime rates is unclear, according to a September report from researchers at Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Criminal Justice.
“While we lack the data needed for a causal analysis at this point, we can say at least that crime in Illinois did not go up following PFA implementation,” the Loyola researchers wrote. “In fact, reported violent and property crime declined in rural counties and in Cook and other large counties, though not in every county.”
The report said the statewide volume of reported crimes declined 11% between the first six months of 2023, before the Pretrial Fairness Act was in effect, and the first six months of 2024. Violent crime declined 7%, and property crimes declined 14%, between those periods, the report said.
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SAFE-T Act report card
“This does not answer the question of the PFA’s impact,” according to the report. “It’s possible, for example, that crime would have declined further in the absence of the PFA. But it does confirm the unanimous sense of the Illinois practitioners we interviewed, that – as some of them put it – ‘the sky did not fall’ when the PFA went into effect.”
Reducing youth violence
Ald. Conley told Scarlette at an Oct. 15 council meeting that the increase in violent crime in Springfield is “deeply concerning.”
But Gregory, the Ward 2 alderperson, said violent crime is “like an everyday occurrence” in his east side ward. He said he wants to see local officials do more than focus on “judges and sentencing” to address crime.
“We have a serious problem in our community, and I don’t see it getting any better,” Gregory said.
He was a vocal advocate for the grants and loans to Better Life Better Living for Kidz and One in a Million Inc.
Officials from those groups, and other members of the public, took issue with Ward 10 Ald. Ralph Hanauer’s initial concerns that giving a grant recipient a loan would set a bad precedent for the city and Ward 4 Ald. Larry Rockford’s statement at the Oct. 15 meeting that the community’s crime problem “starts in the home.”
Ward 6 Ald. Jennifer Notariano pointed out that the city has provided upfront funding to other nonprofits in the past, such as when it acted as the fiscal agent for a grant Kidzeum received that was also structured as a reimbursement. “Whoever decided that this should be a reimbursement grant, this was a mistake. It just doesn’t make any sense to ask an undercapitalized group… to come up with the funding to get the ball rolling,” she said during the Oct. 29 committee of the whole meeting.
Charles Mack Williams, a systems engineer for StandardAero and chairperson of Better Life, told council members the loans are “an investment in your city.”
He cited Springfield’s “enduring legacy of redlining” that has resulted in concentrated poverty in certain neighborhoods for Black people and extreme disparities in income between Blacks and whites.
“We are feeling the repercussions of historical policies that have perpetuated cycles of poverty and inequity,” he said, noting that those policies largely affected parts of the east and north sides of Springfield.
Williams, who volunteers to work with children served by Better Life, said he is amazed the council doesn’t seem to feel the urgency of funding organizations that serve youth.
He pointed to Census data compiled by the city that indicate 53% of the people in some east side neighborhoods live in poverty and that Black median household income in Springfield is more than 60% lower than that of whites. The gap is among the highest in the nation, he said.
Robert Frazier, executive director of nonprofit Clean Slate Advocates, which administers the Soap to Hope free laundry program and serves thousands of families monthly at his wife’s All In One Laundry business at 801 South Grand Ave. E., said poverty can interfere with good parenting.
Frazier said he is trying to secure public funding through the city to expand Soap to Hope and help more families afford to launder their clothes, a luxury for some families but something that can improve self-esteem and employment prospects.
Readus and Michael A. Williams, executive director of One in a Million, said the state grants will allow their organizations to expand programs that spark children’s interest in science, high-paying careers and recreational activities and trips that broaden their perspectives and keep them out of trouble.
“We want to save these kids’ lives,” said Williams, who is the brother of Ward 3. Ald. Roy Williams Jr., but no relation to Charles Williams, who also addressed the city council.
Readus said the grant could help Better Life pay staff, rent a building and add to the Sunday Funday activities that the group provides for young people in the summer.
Springfield resident Alverta Nekesha Butler, 43, said she is grateful for the fun that Better Life provides her 12-year-old son, DeAndre Palmore, and for the Black male mentors from the group who are helping to shape DeAndre’s character.
“It helps me out a whole lot,” Butler said.
DeAndre was able to ride a horse for the first time when Better Life took a group of children for a field trip Nov. 16 to Riverside Stables in Springfield.
Butler, a divorced mother of five who cares for three of her children and her 59-year-old mother with dementia in the family’s rented home on the east side, said DeAndre’s father lives in Las Vegas.
Better Life helps DeAndre and other east side children “step outside their neighborhood,” she said. “It’s phenomenal. I love it.”
Addressing racial disparities
The killing of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who died after being shot inside her home by former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, may have increased tensions for police, but it appears to have triggered progress on another front.
Rather than denying racial bias or explaining away the latest round of state data that shows Black drivers almost six times more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers, Springfield officials are talking with the American Civil Liberties Union and other “invested parties” about potential solutions and ways of easing the unfair disparities, an ACLU official said.
ACLU of Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said the recent discussion between the ACLU and city officials appear to mark “the dawning of a new day” and “a real departure” from the reaction to the data that ACLU officials received in the past from leaders in Springfield and other Illinois cities.
Most of the stops involve moving violations or equipment and license violations. The percentage of time police find contraband after searching cars is about the same for Black and white drivers. But Black drivers were 5.7 times more likely to be stopped by Springfield police than white drivers in 2023, based on information from the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Yohnka said the disparity has remained mostly steady in Springfield and in many other parts of the state since the data were required to be collected by legislation sponsored in the Illinois General Assembly in 2003 and spearheaded by former state senator and later U.S. senator and president Barack Obama.
Public concerns surrounding fair policing spurred by Massey’s killing and the related desire and urgency by police to repair public trust are “clearly part” of the reason the city has been open to discussions with the statewide ACLU and the group’s Springfield chapter, Yohnka said.
Scarlette wouldn’t comment on the discussions but said the ACLU has “offered some ideas and suggestions that we are taking under consideration. We have a good dialogue and a good relationship with members of the ACLU.”
Yohnka said the ACLU’s suggestions centered on “the idea of having a public discussion” about the data and ways of reducing the disparity in police stops.
“It represents a real step forward,” he said, adding that a public announcement with more details could be coming in the next few months.
“Fingers crossed,” he said.
This article appears in Springfield grapples with increased crime.
