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Transit Table partners pass HB277
HB277—a bill that amends Illinois law to no longer suspend driver's licenses for failure to appear in court for traffic tickets—has passed both houses and now heads to the governor for signing! Illinois will join [...]
Threats of Punishment Don’t Create Safety
In an editorial Friday, the Sun-Times reports that State Senate Republicans want to toughen the law and upgrade order of protection violations from a misdemeanor to a Class 4 felony. The editorial suggests this will [...]
NEW REPORT – When You’re a Hammer, Everything’s a Nail: Examining the “Progressive Prosecutor” Movement and Possibilities for Future Reform
Byline: Naomi Johnson (she/they) is the Co-Executive Director of Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. They lead all research and policy projects for the organization – centering community voices alongside evidence-driven approaches. Naomi graduated from [...]
Primary Election Judicial Evaluations for 2024 are Live!
Among the Chicago Council of Lawyers’ most vital projects are our state judicial evaluations. This crucial public service to help the citizens of Illinois vote for qualified judges. The quality of our judiciary is a [...]
NEW – Restorative Justice, Community, and the Courts: An Analysis of the Impact, Benefits, and Elements “Constantly in Conflict” in Chicago’s Restorative Justice Community Courts
Our new report examines the Circuit Court of Cook County’s three Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCCs) located in the Avondale (North Side), Englewood (South Side), and North Lawndale (West Side) neighborhoods of Chicago. The North [...]
“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.
Mayoral Candidates Answer Questions from Chicago’s Civil Rights Community
Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and Loevy & Loevy wanted to know what Chicago’s mayoral candidates thought about civil rights issues, so we asked them. The questionnaire was sent to the nine candidates running for Chicago Mayor in the 2023 election; all candidates answered civil rights questions except for Mayor Lightfoot, who declined to participate.