UPLC advocates for prisoners, tenants, and disabled people denied public benefits.
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We assist clients in fighting illegal evictions, recovering security deposits, and working with tenants whose landlord has allowed the building to fall into disrepair.
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We have multiple class action lawsuits currently filed against the state of Illinois for unconstitutional prison conditions.
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We represent disabled adults seeking Social Security Disability Income benefits in Chicago.
In the News
Court interpreters are in high demand in Cook County, home to 743,200 people with limited English proficiency—around 15% of the population. But in recent years, the number of full-time interpreters has decreased. In 2014, the county had 34 full-time interpreters; now, there are 29.
While I know nothing about Epstein’s death in particular, I know a lot about suicide in jails and prisons. Prisons are toxic to mental health. They are places of violence.
Officials at an Illinois prison suspended an educational program for inmates, launched two internal investigations and removed 200 books from a prison library because many had “racial” content or addressed issues like diversity and inclusion, according to records obtained by the Tribune.
For nine and a half months, Lydia Thornton was locked into her cell nearly 24 hours a day. All of her meals were slid through a slot in the cell’s steel door. She was allowed outside to shower three times each week. Through cinderblock walls, she could hear women in adjoining cells screaming for hours on end. Sometimes they threatened to kill themselves, a threat often followed by an eerie silence.
