Collaboration for Justice
Updates and insights from the Collaboration for Justice initiative, highlighting partnerships, programs, and efforts to strengthen fairness, accountability, and public trust in the legal system.
NEW: Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago Students’ Reports on the Criminal System, Immigration, and Healthcare in Jails & Prisons — Available Now!
We're thrilled to announce that the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago (FJLOC) students’ reports on the criminal system, immigration, and healthcare in prisons are available now! Focus on Parole Focus on Reentry and Rehabilitation The [...]
Statement in Support of Funding for Non-Police Crisis Models
Non-police crisis response teams, also called Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) teams, seek to integrate health professionals into the 911 response system. Non-police crisis response teams have been implemented in numerous jurisdictions with great [...]
Capstone Event for the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago
On August 8, the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago (FJLOC) held its Capstone Luncheon at the offices of ArentFox Schiff. About 60 persons attended this hybrid event where we offered our congratulations to the 50 [...]
Introducing the 2025 FJLOC Cohort’s Ambitious Social Justice Projects
Felix Mitchell, Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago Program Coordinator The 2025 Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago (FJLOC) officially began on their program January 11, 2025, marking another year of committed student engagement in pressing legal [...]
Celebrating 55 Years: Looking Back at the History of the Collaboration for Justice
On June 12th, 2025, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers will be hosting our annual summer social—this year celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Fund for Justice. As we gear up for that anniversary party, we’re looking back and the almost six decades of collaboration between our two organizations.
Second-Ever Class of the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago Capstone Report, “School or Prisons,” Now Published
The forward, below, was written by David Schrodt, Board Member of the National Appleseed Network, Board Member of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and Leader of the Collaboration for Justice’s FJLOC Working Group This report [...]
“Haste Makes Waste” in Courtrooms Too: Balancing Quality with Quantity in Response to the Immigration Backlog
Since 2017, the backlog of pending immigration cases in the United States has been growing exponentially. Today, there are over two million pending cases in the U.S. immigration court system. Over the past few months, the situation has significantly worsened, with a record-breaking number of new deportation cases filed in the court system in August, putting the total number of new deportation cases at 1,230,000 in FY2023. With the court system facing this unprecedented number of cases, the initial response from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) has been to increase the number of immigration judges.
Pretextual Vehicle Stops—A Pipeline to Police Testilying
Pretextual traffic stops occur when an officer pulls over a driver for an alleged minor infraction – an expired registration tag, say, or a burned out taillight. But then the officer uses the stop as an excuse to fish for evidence of a crime unrelated to the original reason for the stop. As alleged in a proposed class action lawsuit filed in June by five Black and Latine motorists, Wilkins v. City of Chicago: “Traffic stops on the city’s predominantly Black and Latino South and West [S]ides…are typically for minor violations—or for no reason at all—and are a tool for officers to search and detain minority residents.”
NEW REPORT | One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County
This report focuses on Cook County’s “post-plea” diversion courts. Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are excited to release our new report, One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County. In it, we offer a holistic picture of the scope of specialty (or “problem-solving”) courts, which have become an increasingly popular tool for lowering the number of people in prisons in the United States.
NEW REPORT | I Don’t Know Why I’m Here: Observations from Cook County’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Courtrooms
From March to August of 2022, our volunteer court-watchers observed 230 civil asset forfeiture calls in the County Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Court-watchers noted a number of stakeholder concerns around innocent owners, support for self-represented property owners, procedural efficiency, and more, and brought up concerns of their own.
