{
	"type": "rich",
	"version": "1.0",
	"provider_name": "Action Network",
	"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
	
	"html": "<link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/student-demands?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-student-demands' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div>",
	"author_name": "Decarcerate Illinois",
	"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/illinois-justice-coalition",
	"title": "Student Demands",
	"thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/035/396/normal/Screen_Shot_2017-05-04_at_4.54.56_PM.png",
	"description": "Higher education remains the consummate way to turn a life around, yet universities and colleges routinely force applicants to reveal their criminal histories, complicating academic progress for those who need it most. But a state bill---HB 3142---aims to remedy that problem in Illinois and needs your support. Mass incarceration is a large scale crisis and addressing it attracts bipartisan support. HB-3142 was put forward by Republican state Representative Barbara Wheeler and co-sponsored by a host of Democrats and could become model legislation for other states.  The bill bars public colleges and universities from inquiring about or considering “an applicant&#x27;s criminal history before admitting the person.” However, once a person is admitted, the school can “request criminal history and use it to provide for the safety of other students.”   A healthy democracy is all about enabling sane policy choices, and this policy choice is saner than most. Making one, or several or even many mistakes shouldn’t preclude educational opportunity. When Wheeler learned how criminal history inquiries could impact would-be students she acted despite our country’s deepening ideological rifts. &quot;A lot of people have asked me why a representative from northern Illinois, in a conservative, white area, are you carrying this bill?” Wheeler explained to the News-Gazette of Champaign-Urbana in March. “I think that&#x27;s a fair question. I had a constituent who was 19 and had gotten into trouble at 16 or 17 for drug possession and petty theft. When he got to the [criminal history] question on the application form, he stopped the application process.&quot; According to research by the Prison Studies Project, Wheeler was right to move on the problem, particularly in view of her conservative values. Her party encourages law and order and providing educational access yields law abiding citizens. “The majority of people in U.S. prisons do not have a high school diploma. A high correlation exists between the level of education attained by an incarcerated person and his or her recidivism rate,” the Harvard University based project explains. “The American Correctional Association has reported that in Indiana the recidivism rate for GED completers is 20 percent lower than the general prison population rate, and the recidivism rate for college degree completers is 44 percent lower than the general population’s. In other words, the higher the degree earned, the lower the recidivism rate.” In reentering society, the formerly incarcerated already face myriad challenges to completing a life reset, and getting an education shouldn’t be one of them. Let’s tell the General Assembly of Illinois to pass HB-3142!",
	"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/student-demands"
}