CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — En una base militar mexicana, el capitán Eduardo Barrón no toma un rifle, sino un micrófono. Balanceándose de bota a bota, entona una canción mientras los sonidos de trompetas y acordeones rugen desde una banda de una docena de soldados vestidos de camuflaje.
El estilo rítmico, conocido como corrido, es reconocible para casi todas las almas en la nación latinoamericana de 130 millones. Pero las letras de Barrón son muy distintas de las que resuenan en los altavoces de todo México.
“Aún recuerdo el día que me uní al Ejército”, cantó. “Este es un sueño que mi alma anhelaba, y si viviera otra vida, volvería a ser soldado”.
Barrón, quien actúa bajo el nombre de “Eddy Barrón”, comenzó a lanzar videos musicales y canciones en Spotify el año pasado en coordinación con el Ejército mexicano. Sus letras ensalzan las virtudes del Ejército, celebran a los padres orgullosos y rinden homenaje a los caídos.
Contrastan fuertemente con los controvertidos narcocorridos, un subgénero que ha generado controversia ya que artistas famosos rinden homenaje a los jefes de los carteles, retratándolos como rebeldes que van contra el sistema.
Ante el desafío de abordar un estilo musical que representa la violencia de los carteles, los gobiernos locales en todo México han prohibido cada vez más las actuaciones y han emprendido investigaciones criminales contra bandas y músicos. La presidenta de México incluso prometió reducir la popularidad de los narcocorridos mientras promovía otros estilos musicales menos violentos.
Pero Barrón, de 33 años, ha tomado una estrategia diferente. En lugar de censura, quiere aprovechar el impulso con sus propios corridos militares, un esfuerzo por infundir al género letras más socialmente aceptables y reclutar a jóvenes para el ejército.
“Está de moda, la vida narco. Y lo hacen sonar muy bonito. (…) Pero la realidad es otra”, dijo. “Estamos poniendo ese granito de arena, pues de invitar a los jóvenes a que se unan a este movimiento de de música positiva”.
Un compromiso para cambiar la música mexicana
Las baladas militares de Barrón forman parte de un impulso gubernamental más amplio encabezado por la presidenta mexicana, Claudia Sheinbaum, quien ha propuesto que el gobierno promueva corridos sobre “el amor, el desamor, paz”.
Incluso anunció una competencia de música mexicana patrocinada por el gobierno en el estado norteño de Durango, que impulsa música que evita “enaltecer la violencia, las drogas o la discriminación a las mujeres”.
“Es cambiar completamente la música mexicana”, dijo.
Pero en una subcultura definida durante mucho tiempo por la resistencia y por poner palabras a las duras realidades que enfrentan los pobres, las iniciativas del gobierno en torno al género han sido recibidas con escepticismo sobre los intentos oficiales de promover narrativas para todos los públicos.
“(Que) se busque que la gente incorpore otro tipo de narrativas, yo no lo veo mal”, dijo José Manuel Valenzuela, un sociólogo de Tijuana que estudia el género. “Hay muchas canciones que de paz y de amor, pero las exitosas que estamos viendo no son esas (…). Porque estamos viviendo una situación de una juventud agraviada”.
Los problemas sociales a través de las canciones
Los corridos nacieron en el siglo XIX. Sus instrumentos de banda clásica y acordeón están enraizados en la migración alemana y polaca a México. En una época de analfabetismo generalizado, se usaban ampliamente para transmitir historias orales.
Las baladas despegaron durante la Revolución mexicana, cuando se usaron para compartir historias de héroes de guerra y gloria del conflicto.
Por eso Barrón dice que no inventó los corridos militares, sino que simplemente los está trayendo de vuelta.
“Es diferente, pero el corrido realmente surge en la Revolución y son esos, los militares, las tropas revolucionarias, que ahorita lo estamos haciendo, a lo mejor en otra época, pero que el fin es el mismo”, explicó.
El género evolucionó a lo largo de generaciones y pasaron de narrar el contrabando de tequila durante la era de la Prohibición en los años 20 en los corridos tequileros hasta lidiar con la creciente ola de violencia de los carteles en México con los narcocorridos.
“Todos los grandes temas sociales, están contados a través de los corridos”, dijo Valenzuela. “Era una forma metafórica de contar lo que estábamos viviendo”.
Armas y alambre de púas como inspiración
Barrón dijo que tocaba la guitarra con la banda de música regional mexicana de su padre cuando era adolescente y escribía su propia música. Después de unirse al Ejército a los 20 años, llevaba su guitarra para tocar en los despliegues.
En 2021 comenzó a escribir sus propias canciones sobre su tiempo en el Ejército y a cantar con una banda militar, FX, llamada así por el tipo de arma que usa el Ejército. Pero la música nunca se hizo pública.
Alrededor de 2023, el género explotó cuando artistas como Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida y Natanael Cano comenzaron a mezclar el estilo clásico con música trap en lo que se conoce como corridos tumbados. Ese mismo año, Peso Pluma superó a Taylor Swift como el artista más reproducido en YouTube.
Un año después, el Ejército mexicano decidió publicar la música de Barrón bajo su nombre artístico.
Los videos musicales, que han acumulado decenas de miles de visitas solo en YouTube, están llenos de imágenes de armas pesadas, la bandera mexicana, alambre de púas y Barrón cantando vestido de camuflaje y con gafas de visión infrarroja sobre su casco militar.
Originalmente destinados a entretener a las tropas y aumentar el reclutamiento militar entre los jóvenes mexicanos, las canciones de Barrón adquirieron un significado diferente en medio de la renovada controversia que ha venido con el auge de los corridos.
El estilo musical ha sido criticado durante mucho tiempo por romantizar la violencia de los carteles, pero ha alcanzado un punto de inflexión en los últimos años.
Los estados mexicanos han implementado prohibiciones de actuaciones, y artistas prominentes han recibido amenazas de muerte, que a menudo dicen provenir de carteles rivales cuyos líderes son glorificados en su música. Y los músicos se han visto obligados a cancelar conciertos debido a preocupaciones sobre posible violencia.
La controversia se intensificó la semana pasada después de que el rostro del jefe del cartel Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera se proyectara en una gran pantalla detrás de la banda Los Alegres del Barranco en un festival de música en el estado norteño de Jalisco. El incidente, que ocurrió poco después de que el cartel de Oseguera fuera vinculado a un rancho que se estaba investigando como campo de entrenamiento y para abandonar cuerpos en Jalisco, conmocionó a todo México.
La actuación fue recibida con un aluvión de críticas. Dos estados mexicanos anunciaron investigaciones criminales, se cancelaron conciertos y el gobierno de Trump revocó las visas estadounidenses de los miembros de la banda.
También hizo que Sheinbaum, que pidió una investigación sobre el concierto, endureciera su posición. “No se puede hacer apología de la violencia ni de los grupos delictivos”, afirmó.
Barrón, quien se opone a prohibir los corridos, cree que la solución es seguir cantando vestido de camuflaje con la esperanza de reclamar la música mexicana de su infancia de los estereotipos negativos que han llegado a definirla.
Dijo que el Ejército ya está planeando lanzar nuevas canciones en los próximos meses.
“Lamentablemente, muchos nos quedamos con la etiqueta del corrido de la música negativa”, dijo. “Mejor es reivindicar, reorientar, buscar otras opciones. Y yo creo que en nuestro caso esa es la intención”.
____
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Three upcoming, monumental dance events, all with deep ties to Chicago, are on a collision course with your calendar. But it is possible to see the Joffrey Ballet, Twyla Tharp and Parsons Dance next weekend — and you should.
Parsons Dance
David Parsons launched his dance company in 1985. Three years later, he opened the season at Columbia College Chicago.
“For some reason, they gave us a white limousine,” Parsons said in a recent phone interview. “I remember that gig. And I’ve done a lot of gigs.”
Born in Rockford and raised in Kansas City, Parsons credits Chicago with putting wind in the sails of a company that went on to international acclaim.
“Chicago is a major city in the United States,” he said. “You start getting that stuff on your resume, it’s the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. You’re on your way.”
Since the city’s early endorsement, Parsons Dance has toured 30 countries and five continents, but it has been 30 years since Parsons Dance has been back. That changes on April 12, when they perform for one night only at the Auditorium.
Howell Binkley, Parsons Dance co-founder and lighting designer, is prominently featured, lighting all but two of the pieces on the program. Binkley died in 2020; among his many accolades are two Tony Awards for “Jersey Boys” and “Hamilton.”
“He lit every work I did,” Parsons said of Binkley, beginning with “Caught” in 1982. “Lighting is my muse. Light is the thing that gets me going.”
Parsons was dancing with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the time. “Caught” uses a flashbulb effect to catch its single dancer in mid-air, and has become a signature work of the company.
“If I didn’t do ‘Caught,’ I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” he said. “It’s just one of those things.”
The piece is second to last on Saturday’s program, which opens and closes with ensemble works from the aughts: “Wolfgang,” an homage to ballet set to the soundtrack from “Amadeus,” and “Shining Star,” set to music by Earth, Wind & Fire. A newer tour de force, “Balance of Power” (2020), and an older one, “Nascimento” (1990), complete the bill’s repertory by Parsons, with the 2024 work “Juke,” by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater resident choreographer Jamar Roberts, completing the program.
7:30 p.m. April 12 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets $30-$120 at 312-341-2300 and auditoriumtheatre.org
Twyla Tharp Dance
Twyla Tharp Dance hasn’t been here in a while, either, not since her 2017 lecture demonstration on some of her earliest works called “Minimalism and Me”
visited the Museum of Contemporary Art. Now, Tharp brings something brand new to the Harris Theater as part of her company’s 60th anniversary season.
“Slacktide,” which premiered last year, is set to music by Philip Glass, realized and played on stage live by Third Coast Percussion and Constance Volk, all from Chicago.
“The Glass is a piece of music I’ve admired for a while in a different format,” Tharp said. “When I was introduced to Third Coast and saw that they could make something old new again—that was very attractive.”
It’s the first time Tharp has used the composer’s music since “In the Upper Room,” which premiered in 1986 at Ravinia Festival before it had a title. Tribune critic Richard Christiansen called it a “breathtaking, big buster of a dance.” Indeed, “In the Upper Room” has long been considered one of Tharp’s greatest dances. “Slacktide” begins where it left off. The front half of the program is taken up by Tharp’s 1998 work “Diabelli,” set to Beethoven’s theme and variations of the same name.
“Theme and variation is a natural form, in that it makes a statement and then it examines the breadth, depth and issues around the theme,” she said, “which provides a natural dramatic unity. It’s both contrast and similarity, and that’s a very attractive thing.”
Tharp wrote a theme “as simple and useful” as composer Anton Diabelli wrote for Beethoven, took it apart, examined it, and put it back together every which way. Unlike Mozart’s one-upping of Antonio Salieri in the film “Amadeus” (which Tharp choreographed), Beethoven wasn’t cynical in his approach, she said.
“There is a lot of humor,” she said. “He does do parodies. But he’s always respectful of the material.”
She’s talking about Beethoven, but the sentiment is easily extrapolated to Tharp’s decades of dancemaking.
“The juxtaposition of what’s old and what’s new is always a pretty thorny problem,” she said. “It becomes kind of meaningless: Old, new, used or not used, A.I., fresh, original — all things that I’ve always had a kind of sense of the mortality of this concept.”
April 10-12 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets $74-$225 at 312-334-7777 and harristheaterchicago.org
.
CSO x Joffrey Ballet
Lest you think that’s enough dance for one weekend, don’t sleep on the Joffrey Ballet’s two world premieres performed alongside the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Harry Bicket. It is the third such collaboration — an unconventional challenge
involving an assigned piece of music and an atypical dance space on the CSO’s home turf. At first, Joffrey rehearsal director Nicolas Blanc was taken aback by his selection: Darius Milhaud’s “Le Boeuf sur le Toit” (literally translated from French to mean “the cow on the roof”).
“Despite the fact that it’s written by a French composer, I didn’t know the piece,” said Blanc, a Frenchman himself. “To be frank, when I listened to the piece, I thought, this is really fun, but I’m not sure it’s corresponding to my personality. I’ve been more doing serious works like ‘Under the Trees Voices,’
more nostalgic, more lyrical. It became a lot of fun, actually, to do my research.”
The result is “Les Boeufoons” (pronounced like “buffoons, a theatrical tribute to the piece’s origin story. Milhaud intended “Le Boeuf” to be incidental music in a Charlie Chaplin film. Chaplin didn’t want it. Neither did Serge Diaghilev, the impresario overseeing the wildly popular Ballet Russes in 1920s Paris. Choreographer Jean Cocteau, who had pitched “Le Boeuf sur le Toit,” premiered his ballet without Diaghilev’s help. Blanc employs references to Cocteau, the famous Ballet Russes ballet “Parade” and the haute couture of the era. It’s fun and hedges on ridiculous, without crossing the line into farce. That is miles away from Amy Hall Garner’s work “Second Nature” with visualizes music by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, an American composer whose connection to dance is concretized in the score to Alvin Ailey’s “For Bird with Love.”
For Blanc, it’s been a welcome project that has pushed him outside his comfort zone — particularly with dancers he sees every day.
“I’m really excited this project is happening,” he said. “It’s not been easy to conceive. I’m hoping all my hours of research and thinking and brainstorming are fruitful for what’s going to be presented to the audience. But I do think that in the particular context we live in at the moment, a lighthearted piece is very welcome.”
April 10-13 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $55-$399 at 312-294-3000 and cso.org
.
Also of note: In her newest piece, Praize Productions artistic director Enneréssa LaNette Davis suggests a slow-down in this work-obsessed chaotic world. Called “Complexions,” the multi-disciplinary piece features dance made by Davis, former Deeply Rooted Dance Theater co-founder Kevin Iega Jeff and two former powerhouse Chicago dancers, Dominique (Atwood) Hamilton and Monique Haley, who have found their choreographic sea legs since leaving the stage. Musicians Junius Paul and Isaiah Collier join for the multimedia performance. 6 p.m. April 13 at the Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St.; tickets $52-$127 at praizeproductions.com
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Department of Government Efficiency are reshaping the U.S. health care system, starting with deep cuts to the agencies Kennedy now leads.
Kennedy and his allies argue such moves are needed to change federal culture and improve efficiency in the name of long-term health improvements. But critics question how Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, movement can be successful with a weakened federal health department.
In his first public comments about the cuts, expected to impact around 10,000 staffers, Kennedy told reporters the government bureaucracy was too bloated.
“All these programs, all of the CDC, NIH … were not doing their jobs, and there was tremendous redundancy,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “We’re streamlining the agencies. We’re going to make it work for public health, make it work for the American people.”
Even critics concede the sprawling health department could work better, but they see the Trump administration’s approach of seemingly indiscriminate job cuts as potentially harmful to Americans, including children.
Among those fired were scientists who tested food and drugs for contaminants, analysts responsible for studying ways to save money on prescription medicines, communications staff who could inform the public about outbreaks and many more.
The administration also fired the entire staff of CDC’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, including members who fought childhood lead exposure and those who worked on cancer clusters.
That division helped discover lead contamination in applesauce pouches that were popular with kids.
“They were practicing evidence-based public health. They’re aligned with the chronic disease priorities of the administration. And they were just terminated,” a former agency employee told The Hill.
“The secretary is concerned about chronic disease in this country and has repeatedly mentioned asthma as a specific concern. Is he aware he fired all the experts in CDC’s National Asthma Control Program?”
The MAHA movement wants to refocus the nation’s efforts to spend less time and attention on treating illness and instead work to fix why people are getting sick.
Kennedy has talked about putting lifestyle and diet at the fore of U.S. health policy by banning artificial food dyes, eliminating soda from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and addressing rising rates of chronic illness such as diabetes and asthma in kids.
He’s also pledged “radical transparency,” and in his first address to staff, he said, “both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information.”
Yet on Tuesday, Kennedy eliminated entire agency communications teams and gutted staff responsible for processing Freedom of Information Act requests.
Elsewhere, top subagency heads who might have clashed with Kennedy — such as Peter Marks, the top vaccine regulator — were ousted, and entire divisions were either eliminated, including groups focused on HIV prevention and violence prevention, or moved under HHS directly in a consolidation of Kennedy’s oversight.
“Even if one thought that [the Food and Drug Administration] or HHS needs a reorganization, this isn’t a sensible approach to doing that,” said Patricia Zettler, a law professor at the Ohio State University College of Law who served as HHS deputy general counsel until January.
“This is a tremendous amount of expertise that the agency is losing across all areas that it regulates.”
Impacted staffers as well as outside observers described most of the cuts as arbitrary.
“It’s very difficult to see how this is going to move a rational agenda forward,” said Robert Steinbrook, director of the health research group at watchdog organization Public Citizen. “Many people with great institutional knowledge, who seem to have been doing a perfectly fine job as civil servants, were selectively targeted and forced to leave.”
Among those fired was the official who approved the experimental drugs given to President Trump when he was infected with COVID-19, said David Kessler, who ran the Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997, and was a top adviser on the pandemic response under former President Biden.
“Someone needs to walk into the Oval Office and say, ‘Mr. President, we just fired the person who may have saved your life,’” Kessler said during an April 3 interview with Rachel Maddow.
“We’re less safe today because of these cuts that have happened for the last several days,” Kessler added. “I always thought that things were fixable. I am very concerned that if these cuts are not rescinded, these will [have an] effect for decades.”
While it’s too early to tell exactly how such drastic changes will affect health care in the country, most experts have said they are not optimistic.
“These are reckless, thoughtless cuts that will only make American communities less healthy and less safe,” Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting CDC director, said in a statement. “They represent an abdication of the department’s essential responsibility to promote and protect health.”
Some of the cuts could still be reversed. In his comments to reporters Thursday, Kennedy acknowledged some eliminated positions and programs may be reinstated, like the program that monitors blood lead levels for children.
“There were a number of instances where studies that should not have been cut were cut, and we’ve reinstated them. Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. We are reinstating them. And that was always the plan,” Kennedy said.
“One of the things that President Trump has said is that if we make mistakes, we’re going to admit it. And we’re going to remedy it.”
Park Forest has always been conscious of its history.
Not many communities have had books written about the way it shaped city planning, such as “America’s G. I. Town” by Greg Randall, a best-seller about the creation of a new kind of corporate society. Or “The Organization Man” by William Whyte, or a display in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History on how the village helped change post- war commuting habits.
The town has won two All-America City awards and in the finals on two other occasions.
Thus, it seems only logical there is the Park Forest Hall of Fame to honor those who helped create and complete this different and diverse community.
At 3 p.m. this Sunday in Freedom Hall, seven people, most of whom flew under the radar of community life, will be inducted into the Park Forest Hall of Fame.
This ceremony, an annual affair of the Park Forest Historical Society, is meant to highlight the village’s unique place in the life of a community founded 76 years ago as a post-World War II model.
This year the following seven people will be inducted.
Famed Rich East High School football coach George Egofske
, who coached four undefeated teams in the 1960s and was twice elected to the Illinois Sports Hall of Fame, as a multisport athlete at Illinois State university and as a trailblazing coach.
Pioneer settlers Aaron and Rose Greenberg, who planted a seed that blossomed into Park Forest’s commercial future when they opened Sexton’s on the Mall, the first food and beverage business in the new town.
Karen Blackful, who worked at the Park Forest Public Library for 24 years, was a member of the village’s Recreation and Parks Advisory Board and, according to her children, instilled love for and service to the village. Her son, Victor, is Freedom Hall’s cultural arts supervisor.
Julie Townsend, a reluctant nominee who is the president of the Park Forest Garden Club and, along with her late husband “Pastor Bob” Townsend, is a pillar of support for Calvary United Protestant Church.
Ruth Smith, who for nearly 60 years or since she and her late husband, Carroll, moved into town has been a vital contributor to the welfare of the village as a music teacher as well as the longtime director of the Park Forest Chansonettes.
Susan Blatchford, who juggles two fundamental tasks in and for Park Forest. In her six years as head of Park Forest’s Beautification Awards program, she has streamlined a cumbersome program and takes to social media on a routine basis to correct distortion, half truths and lies about the village.
With these seven honorees, the hall of fame now numbers 216 individuals and another nine groups, clubs and area organizations.
Philip Klutznick, recognized as the person with the vision for a community, one which helped returning World War II veterans find new homes for new families,was the first inductee and the most obvious choice to become the first entrant into the hall in 1989, the 40th anniversary of incorporation.
It took another five years before the society decided how to put a bell on the cat and that the easiest thing to do was hold an annual selection process and hold an annual election. In 1994, 11 more were named to the hall. That turned the one-time ceremony into an annual and respected event
One would think recognition by your neighbors is a warm and fuzzy medal of honor, and in many cases, family written obituaries include this honor.
Through all those years, society Director Jane Nicoll has been its most ardent supporter and advocate for the preservation of this community’s history and archives. As I wrote earlier
this year, the society is seeking a permanent site for the vast archival collection as its time in soon-to-be closed St. Mary Catholic Church on Monee Road comes to an end.
Jerry Shnay, at jerryshnay@gmail.com, is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
Want speed cameras proliferating on your suburban roads?
Chicago-style speed cameras could be coming to a suburb near you thanks to a bill that’s still alive ahead of the April 11 third-reading deadline in Springfield. Today, cameras are allowed only in municipalities with populations over 1 million — which, in Illinois, means Chicago. If this new bill advances, it would authorize home-rule municipalities with populations over 35,000 in counties with more than 3 million people to install speed cameras.
Translation: Speed cameras could be coming to suburban Cook County, the only place in the state with municipalities that fit these requirements.
Red-light cameras are already a reality of life in some parts of the suburbs. From south suburban Homewood to northwest suburban Rolling Meadows, more towns are raising money from these cameras, plaguing drivers just trying to get to work, run errands or shuttle kids to activities.
Des Plaines operates red-light cameras at the busy intersection of Golf and Rand roads that issued 7,885 tickets last year, totaling $320,000.
Other suburbs leverage red-light cameras, too, including Hoffman Estates, also in the northwest suburbs.
Red-light cameras in west suburban Oakbrook Terrace were steeped in corruption, as former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Anthony “Tony” Ragucci pleaded guilty in 2022 to his part in a kickback scheme involving the village’s red-light camera system.
Ragucci was just one of the elected officials caught up in corruption involving SafeSpeed LLC, which operated cameras in many suburbs. Former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat, pleaded guilty in 2020 to accepting bribes to protect SafeSpeed’s interests in Springfield. Former state Rep. John O’Sullivan pleaded guilty in 2021 to accepting bribes to further SafeSpeed’s interests in Oak Lawn. The Tribune reported new information in February on Chicago Democrat and state Sen. Emil Jones III’s alleged role in the SafeSpeed scandal.
In short, the Chicago area has a history of red-light camera corruption.
That’s not to say all traffic camera programs are corrupt, but they certainly lend themselves to abuse. The public would benefit from far greater oversight of these expanding programs, given the history of widespread problems, not least of which is that partnering with for-profit camera companies can incentivize ticket volume over fairness or safety.
Our distrust of traffic cameras stems from this very problem, and past precedent makes us wary of expanding these programs. We’re also hesitant to support ideas that add yet another cost to everyday life.
We understand the impulse toward safety. Distracted, careless or intoxicated drivers have caused the deaths of many innocent passengers and pedestrians in the suburbs and beyond; reminders of these incidents can be found in the flowers, ribbons and other mementos meant to commemorate loved ones killed in these tragedies. Driving by these spots is a daily reminder of our responsibility to one another when we use the roads.
And yet the idea of the proliferation of speed cameras throughout the greater Chicago area makes us queasy, especially as we consider the failures of the city’s own speed camera program, including disproportional ticketing in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
As we’ve said before, we support drivers keeping to the speed limit and being mindful of others who share our roadways. But too often, we’ve seen that cameras are not about safety — they’re about money.
Before state lawmakers rush to replicate Chicago’s broken model, they should ask: Do we want real safety — or just a new stream of fines? We fear that emphasis is more squarely focused on the latter, and we encourage our Springfield officials to reject this legislation without the concurrent establishment of better oversight.
SPRINGFIELD — Christopher Carter was 20 when he took part in the murder, armed robbery and kidnapping of a man whose body he helped dispose of on Chicago’s West Side in March 2001.
He was the youngest of three suspects charged in the crime. He argued that his role was comparatively limited and court records suggest that he didn’t commit the actual killing, but at trial testified that he participated in the crime because he was afraid of the two older men. All three were convicted, and Carter was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
More than 20 years into his incarceration, criminal justice reform advocates say Carter is among roughly 1,200 people in prison in Illinois who, under legislation being considered in Springfield, could be eligible for resentencing by a judge who takes into consideration their age and maturity level at the time the crimes were committed.
The proposal would apply to people in prison for crimes they committed when they were under 21. It marks one of the latest efforts by lawmakers to allow retroactive sentencing reforms that would give long-term prisoners, some essentially locked away for life, a chance at freedom.
The bill has offered a glimmer of hope for Carter’s sister, Latarsha Hobbs, who said she talks to her brother, imprisoned in Menard Correctional Center, once or twice a week.
“I would love them to put him back in court and resentenced so he could come out (and see) his family and mother,” Hobbs said. “She’s not getting any younger.”
Last month, the bill, which so far has 27 House Democratic sponsors, passed 7-3 in the House Restorative Justice and Public Safety Committee, an early step in a lengthy legislative process. During the hearing, the bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Theresa Mah, testified that the legislation recognizes “children and young people’s brain development and unique capacity to mature and change.”
“This bill would create a pathway for people sentenced as children and young adults, young people, to show that they have been rehabilitated and return home to give back to their communities,” said Mah, a Chicago Democrat. “This is a fair, cost-effective, age-appropriate way to ensure children and young adults are held accountable for the harm they have caused while offering them an opportunity to redeem themselves.”
Wendell Robinson, executive director of Restore Justice, a criminal justice reform advocacy group that backs the legislation, was implicated in a murder case when he was 17 before being convicted and sentenced to life in prison. After serving more than 25 years behind bars, he was freed because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life sentences in prison without parole for minors violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
At the March committee hearing, Robinson said the court case enabled him to become an advocate and mentor at Restore Justice and an active member in his church. The proposed legislation would provide similar opportunities for many others, proponents said.
“It’s a lot of people that will do amazing things if given an opportunity,” Robinson testified. “So please know that I’m not exceptional. I’m just an example of what long-term incarceration can look like.”
State Rep. Theresa Mah speaks during a news conference in Chicago on Jan. 21, 2025. Mah is the bill’s main sponsor and testified that the legislation recognizes “children and young people’s brain development and unique capacity to mature and change.” (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Republican Rep. Patrick Windhorst, a former state’s attorney in downstate Massac County who voted against the bill, said Illinois already has options for people incarcerated as younger adults to seek early release and that the legislation doesn’t properly look out for victims of these crimes.
“My concern with the resentencing efforts that we’re putting in is that we’re putting more burden, I guess, on victims and victims’ families that they’re going to have to go through this trauma yet once again,” said Windhorst, of Metropolis. “And I think there should be some finality in the court system.”
The Illinois State’s Attorneys Association said it objected to the bill on similar grounds, pointing to an existing statute that “focuses on the individual’s rehabilitation during incarceration.”
“And we believe the Prisoner Review Board is in a better position to make decisions about continued incarceration or release based on those factors than the trial court,” the association said.
Illinois does have other pathways for people in prison to seek early release. They include the governor’s clemency process and post-conviction claims alleging a prisoner’s constitutional rights were violated during their trial. Terminally ill inmates may also be released early. And within the last few years, prosecutors have been allowed to file resentencing petitions to argue that further incarceration is unjust.
Mah’s legislation, however, was recommended in a 2022 report from a legislative resentencing task force composed of lawmakers, legal experts and retired judges. The report urged the legislature to create more resentencing opportunities that are retroactive, including one with criteria similar to what’s in Mah’s bill.
“Age is the strongest predictor of the likelihood of reoffending, thus the term ‘aging out’ of crime,” the task force wrote. “People who committed serious crimes decades ago are not at high risk of doing so again and are less likely to recidivate at all.”
Over the years, Illinois lawmakers have shown reluctance to consider retroactive sentencing reforms. About a decade ago, a member of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s leadership team filed legislation to allow certain people who were sentenced to natural life in prison for crimes committed when they were under 25 to file similar petitions for possible resentencing. The measure, which would have been applied retroactively, went nowhere.
This spring’s legislation is an effort to build on sentencing reforms passed by the General Assembly in recent years.
State Rep. Patrick Windhorst waits on the House floor on Feb. 19, 2025, at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. Windhorst, a former state’s attorney in downstate Massac County who voted against the bill, said Illinois already has options for people incarcerated as younger adults to seek early release and that the legislation doesn’t properly look out for victims of these crimes. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
A 2019 law allows people sentenced to lengthy prison terms for most crimes committed when they were under 21 to have their sentence evaluated by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board after serving 10 years. Those convicted of first-degree murder or aggravated criminal sexual assault and not given life sentences would be entitled to parole review after 20 years.
Under a 2023 law, anyone receiving a natural life sentence for a crime committed when they were under 21 — except for those 18 through 20 convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child — would have an opportunity to go before the review board for possible parole after being locked up for 40 years.
Those laws are not retroactive, which the new legislation addresses. In reviewing a prisoner’s petition for early release, judges could reduce a mandatory minimum sentence, or mandatory sentence enhancement, after considering factors including the petitioner’s current age and their “age, impetuosity, and level of maturity at the time of the offense, including the ability to consider risks and consequences of behavior, and any presence of cognitive or developmental disability,” Mah’s bill says.
Judges also could consider whether the petitioner was subjected to outside pressure and whether they were victims of parental neglect, physical, mental or sexual abuse or other childhood trauma.
Victims or their families should be given the opportunity to speak in court or issue a written statement for the judge about the petitioner’s resentencing request, the bill says.
Imprisoned individuals generally could file for release after serving more than 10 years behind bars for most crimes committed when they were 20 or younger, but would have to wait 20 years for review if they’re in custody for first-degree murder and did not receive a sentence of natural life, and 30 years if they were sentenced to natural life.
Springfield Republican Sen. Steve McClure, who has been critical of Democrat-led criminal justice reforms, rejected any suggestion that advancements in what the public knows about brain science should be used as a mitigating factor for all people who’ve been in prison for crimes committed when they were under 21.
“None of those things are excuses to commit brutal murders or rapes, or the types of things that would be eligible for a new sentence under this legislation,” McClure, a former Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney, said in an interview. “We’re not talking about somebody walking into a Walmart and taking five candy bars. We’re talking about somebody that has committed such an egregious, horrific act that they were charged as an adult or they could’ve been 20 years old when they did this, that they were sentenced to a very lengthy sentence and the court would have known the age of the person and sentenced them to a lengthy sentence anyway.”
Sen. Seth Lewis, a Republican from Bartlett, said he wouldn’t support the legislation as written because he questions the provision that allows people incarcerated for most crimes that occurred when they were under 21 to petition the court after serving 10 years.
“An individual who is 18 years old, convicted of a crime, they may have a longer sentence but is now eligible for sentencing review at 28 years old,” Lewis said. “Ten years is just too quick. Twenty? OK, now the person’s older. There’s time for things to settle down.”
But Lewis, who supported an unsuccessful past effort to make certain sentencing reforms retroactive, indicated he supported the provision that allows the courts to field the petitions, saying they’re better equipped to handle that than the under-resourced Prisoner Review Board.
“Many of these individuals have reformed themselves, (and) probably should be afforded the opportunity for the courts to relook at their circumstances,” he said. “Conceptually, it’s not something I’m opposed to.”
Timothy Jones is emotional after delivering a statement during his sentencing hearing at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on May 1, 2015. Jones was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
Timothy Jones would need to serve about eight more years behind bars before he’d be eligible to petition for a resentencing under Mah’s proposal. But it would shave off a big chunk of his 28-year prison sentence for a conviction under Illinois’ felony murder rule, which held him responsible for the death of a 56-year-old legal assistant because it occurred during the commission of a crime.
Jones was 20 on May 8, 2013, when he led police on a high-speed chase through Chicago’s South Side after taking part in a burglary. During the pursuit, a police SUV struck a car driven by Jacqueline Reynolds, who was killed. Police believed Jones was armed with a gun during the events that led to Reynolds’ death, but no gun was found when he was apprehended.
Reynolds’ family sued the city over her death because of the officers’ actions, and a judge awarded her estate $3.5 million.
Reynolds’ friend LaVonia Noble King had asked the judge to show mercy for Jones, sentenced in 2015, saying police also had responsibility for Reynolds’ death. In an interview with the Tribune, Noble King continued placing blame for the crash on the police, saying Jones was used by authorities as a “scapegoat.”
“He did not hit Jackie. They did. And then they put the whole blame on him,” Noble King said last week. “Jackie would’ve never been OK with that. I’m not OK with that.”
Jones is seeking clemency, and in his petition to the Prisoner Review Board, which was provided to the Tribune by a family friend, he cites a change to the felony murder rule in the sweeping 2021 criminal justice reform bill known as the SAFE-T Act that prevents prosecutors from using the felony murder rule in cases where third parties, such as police officers, intervene in certain crimes and kill someone. This change was not retroactive, however.
LaVonia Noble King keeps a photo of herself with Jacqueline Reynolds, at right, shown April 2, 2025, in her South Shore home. Reynolds died in 2013 when a Chicago police vehicle hit her while chasing another vehicle driven by Timothy Jones. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Jones also argued he’s a more mature person than he was at the time of the crime.
“I’m in prison where the roughest toughest men are, and I’ve become a peacemaker. I’ve become the guy who gives younger guys advice and let them know it’s OK to be different,” he wrote.
Restore Justice, which is advocating for Christopher Carter, says he is remorseful for the crime that led to his 100-year prison sentence, has mentored a college student and honed his skills in woodworking and craftsmanship during his time in prison.
Carter has a post-conviction claim pending in the Cook County courts arguing that the Miller v. Alabama ruling should be extended to him even if he wasn’t a juvenile at the time of the 2001 murder that sent him to prison. His initial efforts to make that argument were shut down by a Cook County judge before he appealed that ruling and saw it reversed by the state appellate court in 2021.
Efforts to reach the victim’s family were unsuccessful.
Carter has a daughter who is now in her 20s, and if he’s ever set free he plans to reconnect with her, his sister said.
“It would make her happy that she does have a father in her life,” she said.
