Blair Paddock

How a Chicago Artist Turned Jail Bars Into an Instrument As the nearly 100-year-old Cook County Jail dormitories were demolished in 2021, artist Maria Gaspar was able to salvage 18 cell bars and a couple of bricks.

I spoke with Maria Gaspar, who collected bars from demolished Cook County Jail cells and turned them into a xylophone. news.wttw.com/2025/07/24/h...

Cook County state’s attorney stops maintaining lists of discredited cops The changes amount to small but significant rollbacks in the office’s openness under State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke

cook county state's attorney eileen o'neill burke has quietly scrapped two lengthy lists of tarnished police officers that were maintained by her predecessor to fulfill the office’s constitutional obligations and prevent wrongful convictions.

from @invisible.institute + @chicagoreader.com:

The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been t...

5/ Today, we are publishing a database with the stories of 238 of the men. They are fathers and sons. They had easily plugged into the American economy – delivering groceries and trimming hair.
projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...

He Came to the U.S. to Support His Sick Child. He Was Detained. Then He Disappeared. Like most of the more than 230 Venezuelan men deported to a Salvadoran prison, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas had followed U.S. immigration rules. Then Trump rewrote them.

NEW: Of the 230+ Venezuelans deported to El Salvador:
• Almost half had immigration cases that were not yet decided
• More than 60 had pending asylum claims, some just days away from final hearings

These men had followed U.S. immigration procedures. Then Trump changed the rules.

Inside ICE’s Supercharged Facial Recognition App of 200 Million Images 404 Media has seen user manuals for Mobile Fortify, ICE’s new facial recognition app which allows officers to instantly look up DHS, State Department, and state law enforcement databases by just point...

This is truly wild: @josephcox.bsky.social got the user manual for ICE's new facial recognition app, which appears to be one of the most powerful face rec systems ever because it is connected to tons of different government databases and surveillance systems

www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

I wrote a dispatch for @nplusonemag.com about attending a corrections conference in Orlando while violently ill. The prison I saw was filled with Disney paraphernalia.

I make heavy use of @blairpaddock.bsky.social 's previous reporting (www.thenation.com/article/soci...).

The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

NEW: The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE

ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

The Median Time in Restrictive Housing in Illinois Prisons is 1 Week. But Some Assigned More Than 600 Days Many who’ve been through restrictive housing attest to extreme isolation and confinement in small, dark, windowless cells. Phone and tablet use can be restricted. Yard or outside time is limited.

The Median Time in Restrictive Housing in Illinois Prisons is 1 Week. But Some Assigned More Than 600 Days
news.wttw.com/2025/07/15/m...

Priced Out of Phone Calls Home The FCC blocked Biden-era limits on the exorbitant rates and fees charged by prison telecom companies, leaving incarcerated people and their families to fight for state-level reforms.

NEW: The FCC blocked Biden-era limits on the exorbitant rates and fees charged by prison telecom companies, leaving incarcerated people and their families to fight for state-level reforms.

boltsmag.org/north-c...

US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press.

US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza.

How the GOP Megabill Would Turbocharge Local Immigration Enforcement - Bolts Congress is poised to pour tens of billions of dollars into more immigration detention, private jails, and border operations, plus new ICE partnerships with local police and sheriffs.

NEW from me: The GOP megabill will add $171 billion to immigration enforcement and ICE, a gigantic sum that'll pour funds into a vast network of detention + hire thousands of ICE agents and fund sheriffs.

I talked to an expert on just what to expect:

boltsmag.org/how-the-gop-...

Chicago Ended 2024 With $161M Deficit: Officials The Chicago Police Department exceeded its nearly $2 billion budget, approved by the Chicago City Council, by $207 million, according to city data.

The Chicago Police Department overspent its 2024 budget by $207 million, according to city data.

Even though it had a 2024 budget of nearly $2B,CPD spent $127M more on personnel and $80M more to resolve misconduct lawsuits than called for, according to the 2024 audit. @wttw.bsky.social

BREAKING: The Chicago City Council voted 27-22 to allow Chicago Police Department officials to preemptively impose a curfew anywhere in the city and begin enforcing it with just 30 minutes despite fierce opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson.

How an Ex-Police Officer Fired for Sexual Misconduct Slipped Through CPS Background Checks to Work at Lane Tech Chicago Public Schools hired a former police officer who was on the city’s do-not-hire list after he was fired for inappropriate communication with a 17-year-old girl. Newly released records reveal he...

A former Chicago cop fired for discussing sex with a minor & banned from city employment somehow ended up working security at Lane Tech. How? He submitted dozens of applications with different work experience until he was hired. Questions remain if better record sharing would improve student safety.

New from me: Evanston shared its ALPR network with at least seven out-of-state police agencies that were also searching Mount Prospect's cams for ICE/immigration cases. Read it all here: evanstonroundtable.com/2025/06/16/f...

Two Days Talking to People Looking for Jobs at ICE | Yanis Varoufuckice This is a disgusting country, I thought, irredeemable visually, psychically, morally, and ethically, and whatever is likable about our people’s warm patter does not in any way forgive what we have don...

“The deportation officer applicant pool was, I felt, shockingly diverse—one might say it looked like America. The whole place looked and felt like America.”
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

Excited as always for the next Prisoncast! special from WBEZ & Illinois Public Radio, Sunday, June 15th from 2-4PM! Journalism, music & audio, all made with/for people inside & their loved ones. Here’s how to listen👉 [https://www.wbez.org/2024/12/16/aboutprisoncast]

ICE subpoenas Chicago for records of applicants in city ID program used by immigrants the Chicago Clerk’s Office has kept identifying application materials for more than 2,700 people who used the online CityKey system since December, documents ICE is seeking.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenaed the Chicago City Clerk’s Office for the personal information of applicants to a municipal ID program popular with immigrants, an apparent new tactic in Republican President Donald Trump’s plan to target Chicago as he seeks to ramp up deportations.

This will be held INSIDE due to air quality!

TONIGHT!

After @nysfocus.bsky.social exposed that the New York State Police have a gang database that ICE can access, @blairpaddock.bsky.social does the same in Illinois.

Except the Illinois gang database has a more direct route to ICE — and likely violates state law.

Reporters in other states: Let's talk.

ICYMI:

Illinois State Police Keeps Data on Suspected Gang Members. ICE Has Access According to agreements obtained by WTTW News, the Illinois State Police has shared data with ICE through its statewide computer system since 2008, including criminal history data and its gang member ...

NEW: Illinois State Police keeps a gang database. ICE has access to it. This, despite the state's TRUST Act prohibiting data sharing agreements between the two. news.wttw.com/2025/06/02/i...

News night promo poster woth turnips and carrots surrounding Text that read Thursday June 5th, 7pm 1048 w 37th St, Kate Wagner with the nation, Nik Hunder with a city that works, Carlos ballesteros with injustice watch, Emeline Posner with investigative project on race and Equity

Come hear me talk about my job as an architecture critic and the role of politics in imagining a better future! (along with some really fantastic journos and writers working more deeply in city planning and local Chicago politics!

NEWS NIGHT -- June 5 @ 7 pm.

Illinois coal plants get Trump exemptions from Biden-era rule limiting mercury, other toxic air pollution If the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act survives Trump’s promised legal challenge, Vistra and NRG plants would need to shut down by 2030.

Latest from me: President Donald Trump threw a lifeline to energy companies, encouraging them to apply for exemptions from the latest federal limits on soot, mercury and other toxic air pollution.

Four Illinois coal plants are on the list, including one of the biggest polluters in the Midwest.

‘Egregious Delays’ and No Attorney Assistance: How Those Incarcerated Fight Their Convictions Every year, incarcerated people in Illinois file post-conviction petitions, compiling evidence of police misconduct, violations of constitutional rights or claims of actual innocence. It’s a vital too...

NEW: Post-conviction petitions are a vital resource for those incarcerated alleging injustice. But those filing don't have the right to an attorney and face "egregious" delays -- some cases taking a decade. news.wttw.com/2025/05/27/e...

They came to a hearing at Chicago’s immigration court, then got arrested Arrests at immigration courts across the nation this week have rattled people showing up for hearings.

Federal agents arrested at least four people who showed up for their regularly scheduled hearing inside Chicago’s immigration court on Thursday.

buff.ly/17YUee7

The Red Line Extension's hidden costs Missing line items, rising debt, and long-term risk

New from me! The hidden costs of CTA's $5.75B Red Line Extension. A story of forgotten finances, risk, and opportunity costs.

citythatworks.substack.com/p/the-red-li...

Millions of People Depend on the Great Lakes’ Water Supply. Trump Decimated the Lab Protecting It. The Trump administration’s slashing of budgets and staff have Great Lakes scientists concerned that they have lost the ability to protect the public from toxic algal blooms, which can kill animals and...

NEW: The Great Lakes hold 95% of all the surface freshwater in the United States.

Severe cuts have decimated the NOAA Great Lakes lab.

Scientists worry they’ve lost the ability to protect the public from toxic algal blooms, which can kill animals and sicken people.

My story for @propublica.org