Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> facility, I It is designed to warehouse.

>> W T Tw News exclusive report how some people charged with offenses are subject to indefinite detention.

Hear from the Reverend Jesse Jackson's youngest son, Yusef chosen to lead the Rainbow Push Coalition.

And for to add affordable housing in Chicago, that's also accessible 1986, there were only about a dozen piping plover pairs left in the Great Lakes.

In the first piping.

Plover is of the season are spotted at Montrose Beach.

We explain what their presence means for conservation efforts.

>> First off tonight, the Chicago Police Department is now in full compliance with 25% of the federal consent decree with independent monitors praising the department for significant progress.

The most recent figure is up from 22% compliance last summer.

And it comes 7 years after the court order requiring CPD to stop routinely violating the rights of black and Latino Chicagoans while full compliance has been slow, the monitor did find improvements in secondary compliance, meaning a majority of offers had officers have been trained on new policies that jumped from 40% during the 1st half of 2025.

To 67% by the end of the year.

You can read more at Www dot com slash news.

Frequent fliers might not be surprised to hear hair has been getting busier.

The airport reclaimed the crown as busiest in the world.

The mayor and Chicago Department of Aviation announced today with 8 runways and one takeoff or landing about every 37 seconds in 2025. here beat out second place, Atlanta up by more than 50,000 takeoffs and landings.

There's a catch.

If you count by the nearly 85 million passengers moved through O'Hare.

The airport ranked 6th.

Gardens, a maker space for teens and even dinosaurs could be coming to a vacant lot.

Just steps away from the Garfield Green Line Station, Washington Park.

Community leaders joined University of Chicago paleontologist today to announce plans for site Tobia Chicago.

This Southside Science Center is set to provide hands-on learning opportunities to the public aimed, especially at teens, according to the plans announced today, construction is set to begin within 2 years.

Destructive hail and tornadoes are possible tonight.

Continuing a stretch of erratic spring weather.

That's according to the National Weather Service which says the greatest risk lies north and west of Chicago.

tornado watch is in effect through 10:00PM for Lake McHenry and Kane counties.

How to state laws are keeping some Illinois residents behind bars for an indefinite amount of time.

Our Nic Bloomberg takes the hosts eat right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> In Illinois, people charged with offenses can be held for an indefinite amount of time under 2 different state laws known as civil commitment laws currently more than 500 people are committed under those laws as they're considered a threat to public safety.

Those individuals who've either been charged with or convicted of a offense aren't technically serving time.

But Wdw News spoke with several of them who say it feels like they are our reporters, Blair, Paddock, techie and anchor Brandis Friedman spent more than a year talking to those affected by civil commitment laws.

They also dug through state documents and data to offer a glimpse into the legal and treatment processes in Illinois that have largely avoided the public eye.

Friends Blair join us now with more.

Really great reporting here.

The 2 of you focused on 2 different civil commitment laws in the state of Illinois.

Brand is tell us about the one you looked into.

Yes, thanks, Nick.

So under this law, people who have been convicted of a offense and likely have served some time in prison, they're evaluated by psychologists before they're released to determine if they are likely to re-offend.

And that is, of course, based on that previous offense as well as any.

>> The existence of a mental health condition or mental illness.

The Illinois Attorney general's office then petitions the court to have been committed if and once the court grants that petition, the person is then sent to the treatment and detention facility in Rushville for mental health treatment.

But unlike a prison sentence which can be determinant, folks who are held at the tdf until the court says where they are held at the tdf until the court says that they are no longer a threat that they can be released.

Now, it's not prison, though.

You can tell from these pictures.

It looks a little bit like And many critics, including people who are being held their claim that it functions much like a prison.

It has operated by the Illinois Department of Human Services who contracts with Liberty health care to provide the mental health treatment.

There.

Now, for the last year, I have been in communication with a man named Jason Allen.

He has been at the TV at since it opened in 2026.

Excuse me.

In 2006 before that he was held in various state facilities at first for juveniles and then for adults since he was 13 years old today.

He's 48.

Here's what my phone interviews with him were.

He tells me that he rejected the mental health treatment that he was receiving there because he felt it was a useful.

>> I get out of this facilities treatment program in 2013 because they were just playing games and I have no ties our patients for time.

I've been institutionalized 21 days after turned 13, I've been in treatment facility program.

There were actually designed to help resident patient and they whatever.

>> Turning to the issues.

>> And this facility is not designed to help us.

It is designed to warehouse.

>> Now, Blair, tell us about the state law that you looked into.

This one operates differently.

Yeah, I looked at the sexually dangerous person compared to brandis's law.

The chief focus not focused pre conviction law.

So someone is charged with a crime the prosecutor on that case will petition the judge to evaluate that person has a sexually dangerous person.

A psychiatrist will come in do an evaluation.

And if they're found to be in us up, that person will be sent down state to Big Muddy River Correctional Center again without a criminal trial, even taking place at facility.

They're supposed to receive treatment like group therapy is the main form offered.

But I spoke to a man who about a decade ago filed a lawsuit alleging that there was not adequate treatment.

He said that at the time he was only given about an hour of group therapy each week receiving treatment.

Getting through treatment is the main way be released from the facility.

Yeah.

So clearly some common threads folks taking issue with this treatment.

Bring us.

What is that the process for release from the treatment in detention facility?

sort of similar to what you hear Blair reference because it is complicated.

And the story on our Web site, shows the figures that our colleague, Deirdre techie analyze, showing that 102 people have died in civil commitment since 2006.

That is when the facility opened.

Jason Allen as well as another resident that I've been in communication with their Samuel Rutherford.

They tell me that they have tried to use the courts to secure their release clearly with no success.

The nonprofit advocates at equip for equality make the point that very few defense attorneys are willing to take on this kind of case.

In a statement, the Illinois Department of Human Services, they explain that the tdf this is a quote.

Atf does not determine the length of stay for residents who've been committed to the program term of their original incarceration length of stay is determined by the courts under the Illinois SVP Act and is based on ongoing assessments of risk.

Not a fixed sentence.

The philosophy of the tda program is that residents can be rehabilitated.

Continued detention reflects a court determination regarding risk.

Not a conclusion that rehabilitation is impossible.

So the residents there, they're up for review annually.

And part of that review includes progress in completion of that 5 step mental health program.

That also includes a lot of group therapy.

Typically a discharge means that they are released on what's called conditional release or a successful discharge would be would be released on conditional release.

That's a very strict set of rules or conditions that have to be followed.

Even minor violations could have the residents it back to the for more treatment.

>> And boy, we're just about out of time.

But you mentioned that lawsuit out of Rushville.

What came of that?

Yeah.

So just last week, actually, a federal judge ordered that 5 hours of treatment is required for those who are inside of the facility.

Those plaintiffs.

>> And and see reaction to the therapy hours that we provided in our story that they already provide 5 hours of therapy.

But that's not mandatory for folks to actually.

>> Take up that 5 hours.

All right.

Great work.

Brandis Friedman, Blair Paddock, thank you so much.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And you can read the full stories from Blair Brandis and Jared on our website.

That's all it.

W t Tw dot com slash news.

>> A new chapter begins for the Rainbow Push Coalition following the death of civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Senior.

>> The organization Jackson made into a national force for economic and racial justice now has new leadership.

The reverend's youngest son, Yusuf, who was unanimously chosen by the Rainbow push port.

He's inheriting an organization with decades of history and is charged with taking it into the future.

Joining us now is use of Jackson de newly appointed president and CEO of the Rainbow Push Coalition.

Welcome Chicago.

Good evening.

Thank having me or to be here.

What does it mean to you to be stepping in to your father shoes in this way?

You know, first, let me say I want to thank Chicago.

I want to thank United States and want to thank the world.

There were so many outpourings of a celebration of commemoration of >> Instagram videos and memes and funny things in beautiful stories for my father.

And we just want to thank the whole world for what they offer to So positive.

They kept us strong and really hard time.

want to thank the listeners and your viewers for that.

That means a whole lot.

I'm honored that the board of directors had faith in me.

I think my mother, I think my father, Reverend Jesse Jackson, senior for the faith.

You had to entrust me with this legacy of service taken into the future.

>> Your father also he chose you to write that the board made it official, of course, but he also said that he wanted to take, you know, we've been working on a 4 year.

We've never found the right moment to do it until just recently, actually, it was really important to me.

My father always said he never wanted to retire.

He's not the retiring kind of guy.

He just I'm the kind of work he does it with in his spirit, the spirit service within his body.

And so he wanted to die with his shoes on.

And that's how we did it.

Well, worn shoes.

He had holes in the end, a dirty uniform on.

And that's how he would have it.

So it was important for me that he pass with the titles that Yes.

And in covering his legacy, we also spoke to a revenue at Wilson.

We heard about the struggle for the days when when we're getting out to walk and to March, you know, what he would say was that he'd say that if if you're if you're closer to neat, 2 reached out grab somebody from them but and pick them up, you're in the wrong profession.

That's really, really important him.

So he was always dressed for the occasion and never too high to reach over to people reached out for people to help them up and give them hope.

You know, if I can offer this, my father, the mission, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition is again, protect and defend civil rights by leveling the economic playing field and making a better world for everybody.

My father saw it differently and wanted to see it differently.

More expansively probably than we see that mission, although that's a very important mission remains our mission to gain protect and defend civil rights.

But he was coming out of Jim Crow.

He was coming out of separate but equal.

And so he saw the law changed the 64 Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, public accommodations, bill, but into the cultures had to change so he wouldn't touch almost every part of American culture.

He could public accommodations, the library's, the water fountains, the staffing he had to convince African-Americans that they are somebody that they had dignity to believe in yourself in that you deserve these new rights.

If you remember, there was a time to question the size of our brains.

Can African-American person does he have the capacity play quarterback get the capacity to manage a game pitching for the mount, capacity to coach a football team.

And so he had to change from music to automobile industries to manufacturing all the indices he went to touch.

And to that point, you know, how do you feel the role of the organization is different today than when he founded, as you said it time when he was coming out of Jim Crow.

So we have to be different for us.

We've got to continue to think about it because reaching younger people suffer you see.

But I do know this.

He had a tremendous voice, his voice command at media attention.

He had a face more popular than the pope's.

So we don't have that.

He and he earned that right over 60 years of work and for the work they did.

What we've got we've got to teach civics and a block by block person by person, Group by group level state-by-state, Tuba City.

What does that mean?

Their civil rights advocates?

64 65.

A lot of them are passing on as my father has.

But the beneficiary of civil rights is 80% of the country.

Every woman in sports, every woman in jobs who have a chance to get dollar for dollar compared to a male.

Every African-American, every non western European Democrat since 1965.

Every immigrant.

Since 1965, you are a beneficiary of the civil rights advocacy groups.

You wouldn't be here and have the opportunity have, but for civil rights.

And so it's up to you.

Advocates and beneficiaries who've taken the big games that we've offered you from advocacy and a teacher, the generations without Civil Rights Act without 1964.

95.

This would not be the America that we see today.

And then how do you make that legacy resonate with younger generations?

Because all of that work that has already been done, all of the rights that people already have.

Now, how do you convince them that the work still remains not?

You know, it's don't know what restaurants are going down.

Are sell?

Tell you 2 things.

One.

>> Everyone born after 1965.

United States America was born on second base.

But they woke up and thought they had a double.

Because they didn't have to struggle what my parents knew.

What our parents know was that to get these rights, someone have to die.

We give up a lot of blood.

There's a lot of marching.

A lot of protesting.

A lot of coalition building, but post 1965.

We don't really understand that we've had 61 years of progress without really understanding the nature of the struggle.

We have got to teach people got to teach them one by one.

Every female athlete, every NBA player, all of us must together teach civil rights.

other thing is we we went to Minneapolis and we brought together groups of African Americans and Haitians, tamales and Jewish groups and peace groups and learned first hand what ICE is doing.

It occurred to us that the fight in Minneapolis is about citizenship and the right to vote.

The former attorney general said if you give a voter registration lists, we'll send home citizenship and the right to vote to same fight.

John Lewis, Jesse Jackson and young Doctor King.

We're having in March 1965, at Selma citizenship and the right to vote.

And so they bridge between Minneapolis and is one of continuous legacy.

But the puck Minneapolis didn't really see the relationship to Selma citizenship and the right to vote.

So we took 5 busloads of people from Minneapolis to Selma and from Washington, D.C., and Chicago to march across the bridge to baptize themselves.

Selma, the Edmund Pettus Bridge is is our Jordan River.

And so I think that everyone a cook county today looking to register to vote on on felonious inmate.

Everyone who was trying to push legislation to have 18 year-old have a voter registration card.

One hand and they at a high school diploma.

Other hand, you all voting rights advocates and you in the lineage of the struggle for voting rights advocacy.

So you do more civil rights.

What do you think you are voter registration, voting rights have always been a central push for rainbow push.

What are the other pillars that you're focusing We have trade deficit the country.

Black and brown people.

If if we close gap for the Civil Rights Act alone, the Voting Rights Act alone.

But combinations, Bill education, housing life expectancy affordable health care, then black and brown people would represent over the next 5 years.

5 trillion dollars of additional GDP.

5 trillion dollars.

It's worth investing.

An African-American and brown people in the country right now because it's a safe bet right here, right next to you.

And over the last 20 after the last 20 years, we've lost 30 billion dollars based on the disinvestment and African-American and brown communities.

Ok, couple seconds left.

Lastly, has your family been?

Thank you for asking.

It's every day.

You know, every day we have 4 seasons and our lives it's.

It's hard to talk about.

Still, I want to give you a good answer for that.

But I'm not sure I can answer it appropriately and television.

Could this still very painful for us?

All right.

I understand that.

I won't hold you to it again.

Our condolences use of tax and brand new president CEO Rainbow Push.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

going to be here, of course.

>> And we're back right after this.

>> Reflecting the people and perspectives that make up our communities.

This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Black voices.

>> The lack of affordable housing in Chicago affects thousands of residents across the city.

But for those living with physical disabilities who need living spaces that are accessible, the problem has different challenges in partnership with Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

We explore how one organization is helping solve a decades long issue.

>> Mike Williams is living proof that life can change at any moment.

>> 5 minutes there we would be sent standing here talking right now after a shooting incident nearly 20 years ago, the former NBA player was left paralyzed from the waist down.

>> Needing a wheelchair to get around in search for a new place to call home.

He was told about over the Rainbow Association or OTR.

Can you be there tomorrow?

I still cannot be there yesterday.

>> And was it was a Let's go.

>> Otr says its goal is simple to build accessible and independent housing for people with disabilities.

They have 14 buildings all over northern Illinois, including a brand new building in Lakeview.

The just opened in October.

Erik Huffman is the president of OTR, even as they cross the finish line with their lake.

You project Huffman is looking towards the future.

You're already thinking about what's the next project.

What's in the pipeline?

So you know what we were doing Lakeview Landing.

We also have 2 other projects and the pipeline, right?

Another we're thinking about doing.

>> Huffman says affordability is a key part of OTR is mission.

In other kinds of accessible housing.

Some tenants pay up to 90% of their income for rent.

Dr residents pay no more than 30%.

According to Hoffman.

>> For folks in a wheelchair, for instance.

>> Thanks, In love 2 yards.

Futures are designed specifically for wheelchair users.

>> Which easily accessible.

>> We build, you know, apartments that are free and really have the mobility impaired.

Folks in mind, you know, the showers, the kitchens, the way all that's designed waitlists for accessible housing are huge problem in the city for OTR as Lincoln Park Building.

>> Waitlist numbers are through the roof.

Their 60 people in that waiting was for a departments.

I mean, that's not a 10 year waiting list.

That's a 50 year waiting list.

Waitlist times can vary depending on building size and location.

is a staff attorney at Axis Living Chicago based nonprofit.

They say their mission is to help people with all types of disabilities live independently.

She says there is more the city can do to provide accessible Chicago have >> Asleep at the wheel when it comes to.

>> Ensuring that.

The affordable housing's is accessible in 2018 access living filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago alleging that the city was not complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991.

Chicago was just handing money to developers to build affordable housing and not ensuring.

>> That was accessible, though.

It is required to after 7 years.

The lawsuit is yet to is off and the need for accessible housing continues in Chicago in a statement from Chicago's Department of Housing, the city says it is not able to comment on the pending lawsuit at this time.

>> But it remains firmly committed to ensuring accessibility and all housing programs.

In the meantime, OTR is working to increase accessible housing, one building at a time and to be able to have options that could help you continue on.

>> You give you hope.

>> Reporting for Wt Tw News and Northwestern's Medill School of Safe did >> And we've got much more about this story on our website.

Back with more right after this.

Every summer for the past 7 years, Chicagoans have gone slover crazy.

I'm talking about piping plovers the endangered birds that have decided to make a summer home on the lakefront.

The group Chicago Piping plover is reported yesterday that 2 plover is known as Pippin and money have landed back at Montrose Beach.

So what is all the fuss about?

We thought it was about time to explain.

Here's Patty Wet Lee.

>> Chicago's lakefront is famously open and So why is a crime section of monitors Beach road off every summer because it's for the birds.

Literally the piping plovers.

But there's tiny shorebirds about the size of the smartphone.

>> of the week there used to 1000 them spread across the entire great think people took away a lot of the beaches where they building houses, hotels, marinas and resorts.

by 1986, there were only about a dozen piping plover pairs left in the Great Lakes.

All of nesting in Michigan.

The future looked so bleak for our feathered friends.

They were officially added to the endangered species list.

4 to 2019, 2 of these rare creatures, a male and a female turned up on Montrose Chicago's birders rejoice there had been a nesting pair in Cook County since Harry Truman was president against all odds and logic.

A pair flavors had landed on one of the most crowded beaches in Chicago and decided to start a thing.

>> Maybe slightly unwise choice and cougars part.

But amazing.

An army of volunteers quickly formed to protect the First they on rose from beachgoers and other threats.

>> Long story short.

The couple and eventually their chicks spent the summer charming the pants off.

Chicago before flying south for the winter.

What do you know?

Like all summer blockbusters?

This Monte inroads return to Montrose the Nest again incredibly big landed in Chicago within hours of each other.

Despite spending winter on opposite sides of the Gulf whatever the dynamic duo completed, that religion in 2021.

Raising a 3rd take that Montrose.

Alas, in 2022, the saga took a tragic turn.

Rose never made it back to Chicago and Monday died of an infection, though.

Some would say it was really of a broken heart.

Still the legacy of these love birds lives not just in their son and money was also found in meat it Montrezl.

But in the goodwill, these 2 crazy kids created for their species.

>> Monte inroads.

Putting the love in plover.

>> And if you want to see more from this any award winning series visit W T Tw Dot com Slash explains.

And that is our show for this Tuesday night.

Be sure to sign up for our free email newsletter is the Daily Chicago in and urban nature at W T Tw Dot Com Slash newsletter and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10 City Council is set to vote on a measure that would ban Chicago cops from participating in hate groups or far-right extremist groups.

Now for all of us here at Chicago tonight and Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Clifford and Clifford Law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death from that is a multi-lingual law firm