In 2014, for the first time in decades, Rick Garcia did not renew his lobbying credentials with the State of Illinois.
"With the marriage bill finally passing, I felt like I had accomplished much of what I had wanted to accomplish," Garcia said. "After 35 years as a gay rights activist, I just thought, 'What do I do now?'"
Garcia had been political director of The Civil Rights Agenda and, before that, Equality Illinois. Never one to shy from controversy, Garcia nevertheless was weary of more lobbying once the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act passed. He has now taken a new position, working for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
"I've known Sheriff Dart since he was a state rep," Garcia noted. "He worked with us on all the important issues, including with marriage. I had told him that I was looking to make a change, and then later he asked if I would come work for him. So there I am now, firmly ensconced at the jail."
Since April, Garcia has been Community Outreach Coordinator for Cook County Jail. Among his duties are helping the jail's staff link prisoners with resources that can assist them once they are released, arranging programming for minimum- and medium-security prisoners within the facility, and building partnerships between the Sheriff's Office and community organizations.
Thanks to widespread closures of mental health facilities throughout the area, the jail is the largest provider of mental health facilities in Cook County, Garcia said, so many individuals need to be linked to services quickly.
"A large portion of the people in the jail are not serving sentences—they're awaiting trial," Garcia said. "They're poor and can't afford bail. About 60% are suffering from substance abuse issues as well."
Many of those prisoners, he added, are there for crimes of survival, such as stealing food, or trespassing in order to find a warm space. "The sheriff has talked about the disparity of who it is we lock up. I have to look at how the jail operates, and ask where these people go from there, and who can we bring in to help them."
One of Garcia's first tasks was improving available resources for transgender prisoners, both in the jail and once they're released. He estimated that, at any given time, there are about a dozen trans individuals incarcerated in Cook County Jail. Garcia has been helping foster a link between the jail and Chicago House's TransLife Center. "They have the one full transgender-focused program that could best provide appropriate services," he noted.
Stan Sloan, CEO of Chicago House, said that incarceration-related issues are "huge factors" for some of the agency's clients. "Tom Dart has probably done more work on that than any other sheriff in the nation," he added. "We're glad they're excited about working on these issues, and Chicago House has always loved working with Rick."
Garcia works from a windowless office in the middle of a medium-security tier, passing through a labyrinthine maze of metal detectors and steel doors to get to work each day. He still does work for TCRA in a consultant's capacity, but puts in about 50 hours a week for his full-time duties at the jail.
"I'm really glad I'm doing this," said Garcia. "After thirty-plus years of doing the same thing, I get to do a lot of new, good stuff."
