The Criminal Justice Advisory Committee (CJAC) uses research, advocacy, legislative proposals, technical assistance, and project management to improve all areas of our criminal justice system – all with the primary focus being on decarceration, justice, and racial equity.
CJAC’s work includes everything from the ensuring the enforcement of core constitutional rights to evaluating and designing individual Cook County programs. The Committee works in partnership with various stakeholders, including law practitioners, community groups, advocates, academics, and other experts, helps lead the Coalition to End Money Bond, and works with the Coalition #ChallengingEcarceration to develop fair and effective solutions to address systemic problems. Informed by invaluable community-based support, CJAC helps develop the manageable implementation plans necessary to bring about meaningful permanent change.

LATEST NEWS

Project Areas

Access to Counsel and Civil Rights

Access to Counsel—At times our projects touch upon practices which risk violating rights protected under the U.S. Constitution. For example, in 2012, the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee considered adopting Proposal No. 12-01, which would have allowed Bond hearings to be done via video conference, hypothetically eliminating the need to transport defendants to Bond Court. Our research found that the practice drove up bond amounts, reduced empathy and trust between parties, and severely compromised defendants’ rights to effective assistance of counsel. Our advocacy and that of our partners prevented this practice from continuing in Cook County.
Similarly, in 2013, we uncovered a widespread practice of Preliminary Hearing Judges denying public defenders to individuals based solely on the fact that they’d posted bond and without the constitutionally-required and statutorily-mandated indigency hearings. Our court watchers documented the practice while our pro bono attorneys from DLA Piper, Loevy & Loevy, and the Collaboration for Justice’s Criminal Justice Committee developed proposals for Chief Judge Evans. In response to our work, Chief Judge Evans issued a general administrative order aiming to correct the problem. Chicago Appleseed continues to investigate and develop solutions to this issue to ensure that the 6th Amendment rights of indigent people are observed in Cook County.
We work to ensure that all indigent felony defendants are awarded public defenders, regardless of whether they have posted bond or not. Chicago Appleseed has been continuously seeking to increase stationhouse representation for all arrested individuals (informed by the findings of our consultant’s report on the role of the Public Defender, First Defense Legal Aid, Justice Advisory Council, and the Office of the Chief Judge in increasing the amount and the quality of stationhouse representation in Cook County).

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Bond Reform and Pretrial Justice

Pretrial Justice—Chicago Appleseed is a key member of the Coalition to End Money Bond, conveying the group in 2016. We continually review pretrial conditions including length-of-stay in Cook County Jail, reducing time from arrest to preliminary hearings, and use of pretrial electronic monitoring (EM). We’ve evaluated the potential constitutional implications of electronic monitoring devices that record exact GPS location and/or voice and sound of the individual being monitored and those around them. We fought for and have continued to ensure the appropriate administration of General Order 18.8A, a court order issued by Chief Judge Timothy Evans that mandates that no person will be detained pretrial simply because they are unable to afford bond; in 2021, the Coalition to End Money Bond helped pass the Pretrial Fairness Act, which will end the use of cash bail in Illinois in 2023.

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Combating Excessive Court Costs, Fines, and Fees

Courts impose costs, fines, and fees on people accused of crimes, and when individuals can’t afford to pay, they accrue criminal justice debt. Across the country, these fines and fees function as “user fees” that penalize people solely for their poverty. Criminal justice debt can also include collateral consequences that impact an individual’s ability to move beyond their system involvement.

In Illinois, Chicago Appleseed has been working with partner organizations to reform the criminal courts’ system of fines and fees through legislation and technical assistance. We pushed for and have helped to monitor the implementation of Court Debt legislation aimed at reducing the burden of excessive court costs, fines, and fees, and have develop training and education programs to advise Assistant Public Defenders, Assistant Prosecutors, criminal defense practitioners, and the community on court debt issues.

Related Publications

Cook County Felony Courts

Cook County Felony Courts—Since 2007, we have worked to evaluate the function of felony courts in Cook County and in Illinois. Currently, we are reviewing post-bond Cook County felony courtrooms to ensure procedural justice, fairness, accountability, and transparency of decision-making to combat implicit and explicit bias and promote judicial best practices.

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Diversion and Community Courts

Diversion, Mental Health & Treatment, and Community Courts—Chicago Appleseed worked with the Circuit Court of Cook County to create and initially manage the Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court, an Adult Redeploy Illinois Program that takes drug-dependent individuals and diverts them from the Illinois Prison System and Cook County Jail. The Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court treats justice system-involved individuals with community-based services to address substance-use disorders. We continue to evaluate the fairness and effectiveness of the evidence-based diversion program.
Chicago Appleseed has been working with pro bono partners to collect information, analyze, and develop proposals surrounding street-level diversion programs for Cook County. Each year, approximately 250,000 misdemeanor offenses are filed in Cook County, which accounts for 85% of all the criminal cases processed. A sizable portion of these are property and drug crimes, gang-related, and committed by a small, but active group of repeat offenders—many of whom have mental illness, substance use disorders, or face other obstacles to successful community re-entry.
We have explored alternatives to traditional case processing for ‘repeat offenders’ by researching the need for community courts in Cook County, as well as potential strategies for implementation. In September 2013, Chicago Appleseed reported to the Illinois Supreme Court on the need for coordinated criminal justice reform, barriers to implementing such reforms, and models followed by other state supreme courts.

For more information on ACT Court, please see the “Stories from ACT Court Ambassadors” below: 

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Prosecutorial Accountability and Transparency

Prosecutorial Accountability—Chicago Appleseed has worked with The People’s Lobby and Reclaim Chicago to evaluate State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s Administration in order to continuously advocate for changing the “win at all costs” culture historically present among Cook County prosecutors. We advocate for the training and education of prosecutors on how to stop asking for the imposition of inappropriate and often unnecessary court costs, fines, and fees. We believe that there must be an increase the prosecutor’s role in diversion programs, an increase in the availability of prosecutorial data and training around those data. We have helped to foster cooperation between the State’s Attorney and the Public Defender’s Offices and promote a legislative agenda that includes seeking to reduce felonies and misdemeanors.

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For information of our past projects and other partnerships, view our full publication library.

Co-Chairs: Alexandra Block, Jonathan Pilsner, and Margaret Truesdale
Monthly Meetings: CJAC meets on the third Thursday of every month at 12:00 PM (CST). Click here for the program calendar.
Contact Sarah Staudt at sarahstaudt@chicagoappleseed.org or Click here for more information about joining CJAC.

For information of our past projects and other partnerships, view our full publication library.[/vc_column_text]

Co-Chairs: Alexandra Block, Jonathan Pilsner, and Margaret Truesdale
Monthly Meetings: CJAC meets on the third Thursday of every month at 12:00 PM (CST). Click here for the program calendar.
Contact Sarah Staudt at sarahstaudt@chicagoappleseed.org or Click here for more information about joining CJAC.
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