Deeply ingrained systemic racism. Extraordinarily long sentences. No parole or mid-sentence review. These are just some of the factors that contribute to mass incarceration in Illinois.

The prison system makes no room for compassion, nor is there recognition within the criminal legal system that people change or grow. By creating many ways into the prison but almost no way out, Illinois’ criminal legal system has wrought extraordinary moral and fiscal costs for individuals and communities. At the Illinois Prison Project, we fight against regressive policies, racist practices, and a system that treats people as disposable—with a mission focused on hope, compassion, and humanity. 
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Through advocacy, public education, and direct representation of thousands of needlessly incarcerated people, we bring hope to and fight in community with incarcerated people and their loved ones for a brighter, more humane, more just system for us all.

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JENNIFER SOBLE (SHE/HER)

Jennifer Soble is the founder and executive director of the Illinois Prison Project. After spending years representing clients condemned to die in prison in intentionally labyrinthian court proceedings, Soble founded IPP to advocate for better mechanisms for the release of people from prison. Prior to founding IPP, Soble was a staff attorney in the trial division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and an Assistant Federal Defender in the Northern District of Indiana. In both jobs, she represented indigent clients charged with serious felonies and specialized in forensic issues, as well as juveniles charged as adults and sentencing law. 

She has also been Senior Legal Counsel to The Justice Collaborative where she worked with organizers, activists, and political candidates to advance criminal legal reform; a visiting clinical professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic where she represented juveniles and youthful offenders charged with serious felonies; and a litigation fellow for the Public Citizen’s Litigation Group where she litigated consumer protection, civil rights, and First Amendment cases. After graduating from the University of Michigan and Yale Law School, Soble clerked for Judge R. Guy Cole of U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.