criminal justice – Page 2 – Chicago Council of Lawyers

Findings: Access to Diversion Programs for Low-Level, “Non-Violent” Felonies has Improved since Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Took Office

The Chicago Council of Lawyers and our collaboration partners, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, have again joined The People’s Lobby and Reclaim Chicago to release the eighth report in our series on prosecutorial accountability in Cook County. The report, “Decarcerating Cook County: Use of...

VICTORY: Governor Pritzker Abolishes Money Bail by Signing HB 3653 – The SAFE-T Act – into Law

On Monday, February 22, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed HB 3653 SFA2: the SAFE-T (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity – Today) Act. The bill was sponsored in the 101st General Assembly by Senator Robert Peters, Senator Elgie Sims, and Representative Justin Slaughter as part of the Illinois...

Letter to Governor Pritzker: Support for HB 3653

On January 13, 2021, the Illinois General Assembly passed a historic criminal justice reform package (presented by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus). Among the many provisions in the 764 page bill is the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) – a comprehensive proposal that ends mon...

We analyzed 536,000 CPD arrest records spanning a period from 2014 to 2020. Here’s what we found.

INCOMMUNICADO DETENTION Arrested and deprived of communication without being charged with a crime — incommunicado detention in Chicago. In film and on TV, stories about police and criminals have long made for captivating story lines and entertaining ways to stream episodes until 4 am. In a typ...

Rethinking and Reinvesting in Justice – Thank You for Supporting October 2020 Virtual Forum Series!

Every October, the Collaboration for Justice of Chicago Appleseed & Chicago Council of Lawyers gathers for a luncheon to highlight the important systemic reform work our staff, interns, allies, and pro bono partners have done over the year. Because this year we couldn’t gather in person, we h...

Eliminating Money Bond is an Evidence-Based, Common Sense Approach to Combat Mass Incarceration

This morning, the Chicago Tribune published an attack on bail reform in Cook County. Today’s article attacked two respected organizations, the Chicago Community Bond Fund and The Bail Project, a national bond fund. As leaders in bail reform efforts, Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawye...

Sheriff Tom Dart is pushing a concerning bill through the Illinois legislature that would give unprecedented power to jail officials to lengthen individuals’ prison sentences due to discipline violations.

By Sarah Staudt, Senior Policy Analyst and Staff Attorney SB 416 allows jail officials to use their internal disciplinary boards to remove up to a year of pre-trial sentence credit for inmates who are found to have violated jail rules by committing “public indecency” or “assault or battery of a c...

Ensuring the Public Defense of Indigent Criminal Defendants in Cook County (August 2015)

The Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC) is a joint group composed of members of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers. The CJAC has been engaged in a two-year project to ensure that indigent criminal defendants in Chicago’s felony preliminary hearing courtr...

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