Restorative Justice Community Court profiled in The Atlantic

Chicago Appleseed's senior criminal justice policy analyst Sharlyn Grace was quoted in a story that came out today in The Atlantic, "Should Communities Have a Say in How Residents Are Punished for Crime?" Chicago Appleseed is proud to play a role in designing and implementing Cook County's first...

Medicaid Expansion and the Access to Community Treatment Court

The fate of the Affordable Care Act and the Medicaid expansion, is uncertain. Illinois was one of the first states to embrace the Medicaid expansion in 2013, and it was instrumental in supporting the Access to Community Treatment court, a project of Chicago Appleseed. The Access to Community Treatm...

Access to Community Treatment Court Celebrates Third Graduation

by Ali Abid, Senior Criminal Justice Policy Analyst at Chicago Appleseed On December 2, 2016, Cook County's Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court achieved a major milestone by celebrating its third graduation for individuals who successfully completed the problem-solving court program. In tota...

The ACT Initiative Is Bringing Best Practices to Cook County’s Criminal Courts

In 2013, Chicago Appleseed helped the Circuit Court of Cook County design and establish the Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court, an Adult Redeploy Illinois program. Like all ARI initiatives, the ACT Court was designed to divert people charged with nonviolent crimes from the Illinois prison sys...

Stories from ACT Court Ambassadors

At the Collaboration for Justice's Annual Luncheon on Friday, October 16, we honored the Access to Community Treatment Court of Cook County with our Commitment to Justice Award. We also recognized three extraordinary graduates of the ACT Court--Lester, Angelique, and Cynthia--who attended the lunch...