The start of a new year always comes with resolutions for improvement, but only time will tell if they translate into effective action.

The residential-center horror stories demonstrate that corruption in government often hurts the most vulnerable among us. It also shows that exposing those injustices can lead to change.

In November, 13 of 53 Corruption Watch stories were related to policies and actions of criminal-justice authorities in Illinois.

At least 84 corruption-related stories have been reported from across the state of Illinois in August alone. Atop August headlines is the recent revelation that a federal grand jury subpoenaed the emails of Gov. Pat Quinn’s ex-chief of staff in relation to Quinn’s anti-violence grant program. The case, which has been referred to by some...