Detective to lead discussion on incarceration of women during Sept. 20 event at ECC

Elgin Community College will host "The IF Project," a screening of the documentary by the same name that explores the reasons women are becoming the fastest-growing segment of the incarnated population, on Thursday, Sept. 20 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Building E Dining Room, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. The event is free and open to the public.

Elgin Police Department Chief Ana Lalley, who also works as an ECC Criminal Justice Adjunct Faculty member, will give an introduction prior to the screening. After the viewing, Seattle Police Department Detective and the co-founder of "The IF Project," Kim Bogucki, will lead a community discussion around issues of social justice between members of law enforcement and the communities they serve.

According to "The IF Project," the number of incarcerated women has increased at nearly double the rate of men since 1985. Over 6.8 million people are in prison or on probation or parole, which equates to one in every 35 adults.

What began as a simple question asked by 30-year police veteran Detective Bogucki - "If there was something someone could have said or done that would have changed the path that led you here, what would it have been?" - turned into a full-length documentary and numerous youth and community outreach programs that focus on prevention, a reentry mentoring program for incarcerated women, as well as writing workshops inside prisons.

"With so many incarcerated and formally incarcerated people in the U.S., many people know someone who is in prison or has been to prison," said Clark Hallpike, ECC professor of business and Multicultural and Global Initiatives Committee (MAGIC) co-chair.

"'The IF Project' asks what people could have done to change the incarcerated populations' path to prison - what would happen if we (the community) dropped our prejudice and sincerely asked 'What if we helped change your path after you served your time?'"

The event is sponsored by MAGIC, which has developed a cohesive series of out-of-class, campus-wide learning conversations for students, faculty, staff, administrators and the community.

"MAGIC's goal for this academic year is to build community beyond awareness," said Hallpike. "Once we better understand the issues plaguing our community, we want to determine what we can do to help in actionable, meaningful ways."

During the 2017-2018 academic year, MAGIC examined the complexity of hate through a series of events titled "Targets of Hate," with experts leading discussion on topics such as the confederate flag and monuments, hate speech and freedom of speech and the 13th Amendment's impact on the prison pipeline.

The event is presented in conjunction with Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin Police Department, Elgin Human Relations Commission, Coalition of Elgin's Religious Leaders and Elgin City of Peace.

For additional information about the event, contact Susan Timm, ECC professor of digital technologies and MAGIC co-chair at (847) 214-7916 or stimm@elgin.edu.

To learn more about Bogucki's work and "The IF Project," visit www.theifproject.com.