The Chicago-based all-formats team of Michael Tarm, Charlie Arbogast and Teresa Crawford gained exclusive access to 12 inmates in the DuPage County Jail participating in a new gang-cessation program, a main feature of which is removing or covering the inmates’ gang tattoos to improve their chances of landing jobs on the outside.
Reporter Tarm had been tipped off about the program by a former state police spokesman. He spoke to jail officials for weeks, and along with photographer Arbogast and video journalist Crawford, received two days of largely unrestricted access to the inmates, including the pod where their cells are located and a new tattoo-removal wing.
Erik Eck, a former member of the Latin Kings gang, stands in the doorway of his cell at the DuPage County Jail on the outskirts of Chicago, Feb. 3, 2022, displaying tattoos that symbolize his status with the gang. When he joined the gang at 13, he pledged under penalty of beating or death to adhere to the gang's first rule: “Once a King, always a King.” Tattoos that cover his entire body express fealty to the gang, one of the nation's largest.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Inmate Erik Eck, a former member of the Latin Kings gang, displays the main tattoo that symbolizes his status with the gang, at the DuPage County Jail on the outskirts of Chicago, Feb. 3, 2022.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Inmate Erik Eck, a former member of the Latin Kings gang, displays a new tattoo covering his former Latin Kings tattoo at the DuPage County Jail on the outskirts of Chicago, in a Feb. 21, 2022 photo provided by the DuPage County Sheriff's Office.
DuPage County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Gilberto watches and waits his turn as fellow inmate Jamie prepares to have a bullet scar hidden with a tattoo at the DuPage County Jail on the outskirts of Chicago, Feb. 3, 2022. To get the jail’s backing in their job searches, participants must graduate from a gang-cessation and jobs program. And to graduate, they must have their gang tattoos removed or covered with non-gang tattoos, proof that they’re serious about forsaking their old lives.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
At the DuPage County Jail on the outskirts of Chicago, Feb. 3, 2022, detainee Brett, left, watches and learns as tattoo artist Tom Begley tattoos Jaime Marinez to cover a bullet hole scar from a shooting last year. The tattoo depicts the date and time of Marinez’s father’s death from a heroin overdose.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
Connie Kollmeyer, of the College of DuPage, gives inmates at the DuPage County Jail a horticulture lesson as part of the jail's new gang-cessation and jobs program, on the outskirts of Chicago, Feb. 3, 2022. One goal of the program is to land the inmates jobs in horticulture, welding or other fields they’re learning, said the program’s civilian director.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, center, talks with inmates Erik Eck, left, Joe and Jay, right, who are participating in the jail’s gang-cessation and jobs program, at the DuPage County Jail on the outskirts of Chicago, Feb. 3, 2022. Inmates in the program are separated from other inmates to prevent retaliation against those who are giving up gang affiliations.
AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
When the main subject of the story, longtime Latin Kings enforcer Erik Eck, had two prominent gang tattoos covered, Arbogast and Crawford documented the process. And Tarm spoke to Eck via Zoom minutes after the first tattoo was covered, Eck describing his feelings before and after the procedure. The inmate opened up to the AP team, speaking with remarkable frankness about his gang life and about the real risk that the Latin Kings could seek retribution for daring to leave the gang.
AP was first to report on the novel program. Jail officials said that within hours of the exclusive package hitting the wires they were inundated with calls from local and even national media seeking to match the story. Chicago-area outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, used the AP work prominently.