Emlyn Ricketts

Emlyn Ricketts is one of the heroes working for more social justice in Chicago. She is a lawyer that represents people who are in Chicago Police custody. Emlyn is a mix of cultures such as Irish, English, and German. She comes from the suburbs of Chicago, and then later on moved into the Windy City. Emlyn is a mother of none; according to her she doesn't need kids because most of her work involves kids. Emlyn is very smart, outgoing, and very passionate about her work. What Emlyn enjoys the most is helping young teens change their life around.

Emlyn is an attorney for the city of Chicago. Emlyn currently helps people who are in Chicago Police custody. So anybody that’s at the police station that happens to call her, she will go down there and represent them. Emlyn helps people understand they don't have to talk to the police and make sure they know that the police are only allowed to hold them up to 48 hours. Emlyn makes sure the person she represents knows that police are allowed to lie and ask a lot of questions. So it’s really important to not say anything and just ask for your lawyer because anything you say can be used against you. Emlyn also makes sure after the case is over the person she represents stays out of trouble and gets them back on track with life to do such things as school, work, family problems, and personal problems. Emlyn’s educational experience helped her become the lawyer she is today.

Emlyn attended a very small all girls Catholic High School. Her high school experience was really positive. Since Emlyn went to a small school she was very focused and really didn’t have many distractions. Emlyn went to a very diverse high school with all different types of cultural backgrounds. Emilyn started undergrad at the University of Chicago. From there she went to Loyola for law school and got a masters degree in comparative education policy at Loyola. During law school Emlyn got plenty of help from teachers. Emlyn said she was kind of a nerd. She liked to write and read so she found school entertaining. Emlyn’s first training as a lawyer was for DCFS. She would help the state with cases that would take the children out of their home for whatever reason, situations, or problems at home. Emlyn also trained with parents getting a divorce and would talk to the children, learn what they wanted, what was best for them and then advocated on their behalf to the judge. She also represented somebody in an delinquency case in the juvenile court. All of those experience also affect the way Emlyn sees our community.

Emlyn’s first experience as a lawyer was she ran the street law program at First Defense Legal Aid. Emlyn would get to go to schools and communities organizations and teach people about their legal rights in the Logan Square neighborhood. Emlyn tried to help neighbors organize and open their eyes to a lot of the injustices that are happening in Chicago. Emlyn thinks there are too many people of color in jail and the city is too segregated. Emlyn also thinks that education is of the utmost importance and she believes that everybody in the world should have a right to access education and that strong universal public education is very important. Emlyn thinks the school closings are a horrible thing. She thinks it’s that sense of community that is most important in that loss. Emlyn says closing schools in and around the children’s neighborhoods where their homes are is terrible because now they're going to have to cross through gang boundaries and travel great distance to get to another school. She hopes CPS does not close the schools. Emlyn explained that if she can change something about the schools, she would make classes more interesting, more after school programs, and make sure students would have great opportunities that they can take advantage of. That’s why Emlyn looks up to her heroes because they would never let things like this happen.

A hero to Emlyn is a random person who always shows up when needed. Emlyn heroes have always been her parents because their hard working people, always loved her and made sure she was successful in life. The people who inspire her are the young people she works with. They have so much going for themselves. Emlyn’s role model when she was young was her parents, grandparents, and teachers--people who taught her about the world and to always believe in herself. Emlyn explained she would like to make the world a better place for her students. She will like to see a world where everyone has all the things they need to become something or get somewhere. Emlyn says the only reason why she picks her students is because “they have limited ways to change the world, but I want a better place for them as well as they want for me.”

Interviewing Emlyn Ricketts was amazing. I never knew how much lawyers accomplish. Its good to know there's people out there helping people for their rights.