Contact Us

John Howard Association answers emails and calls from individuals concerned with and/or affected by criminal justice policy and practices.

The primary two reasons to contact JHA are:

1. To report an issue

2. To request information

Anyone may contact JHA by telephone (312-291-9183) or by using our online contact form at anytime.

Incarcerated people may contact JHA by U.S. mail. An envelope marked “privileged mail” will allow those in prison to communicate with JHA confidentially.  To preserve our ability to have confidential communications with incarcerated people, JHA must adhere to the guidelines set for privileged mail.  JHA cannot forward letters or messages to or from a person in custody and a person who is not JHA staff.  To view the document posted in IDOC facilities about our work, please click here.

In most cases, an individual in custody should attempt to resolve issues within IDOC or IDJJ by following the procedure outlined in the orientation manual he or she received upon arrival at their home facility.

Our mailing address is:

John Howard Association
P.O. Box 10042
Chicago, IL 60610-0042

Third party calls (three-ways) are discouraged. There are two reasons for this. First, all calls from facilities are recorded and monitored. Second, third party calls may result in the loss of phone privileges for the incarcerated person as well as problems for the person who facilitated the call, regardless of where the person is calling.