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On May 11^th, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve spoke at University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration about her new book, Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America’s Largest Criminal Court. (Stanford Law Books). Before a packed auditorium, Van Cleve, a Temple University criminal justice professor, argued that racism is pervasive throughout the Cook County courts. She described a system where those who are administering justice are overwhelmingly well-educated whites, while those who are on the receiving end of that justice tend to be poor people of color. Van Cleve contends that, through the deployment of racialized tropes and stigma, court professionals code defendants and their families as morally inferior—and thus unworthy of dignity, respect, and basic human rights.

Her research, which took place in the 1990s and early 2000s, included extensive court-watching as well as in-depth interviews with court professionals. Van Cleve observed court professionals using mock ebonics to ridicule defendants and routinely disparaging them as trash, animals, and worse—often right in front of them. Her research team witnessed judges acting unprofessionally by berating defendants for their inability to speak English and publicly humiliating defendants’ families. She discovered that too frequently, judges, prosecutors, and attorneys hadn’t studied the case files and were unfamiliar with the basic facts—often to the great detriment of the defendant. She argues that the courts are often more interested in disposing of cases quickly than in ensuring due process

Van Cleve said that in writing the book, her aim was to change courtroom culture. That is a goal that Chicago Appleseed shares. Our objective to is to make the courts fair and effective for all people, and one way we do that is by advocating for reforms that advance racial justice. Here are just a few of the projects we are working on that help reduce racially disparate outcomes in our courts:

• The ACT Court – Van Cleve observed that about half of the criminal cases in the Cook County are nonviolent drug offenses. Chicago Appleseed has been instrumental in establishing the ACT Court, a problem-solving court for nonviolent, drug dependent individuals. Participants receive community-based treatment, not prison time, thus avoiding the great human cost of incarceration.
• Field testing for drugs – Another problem Van Cleve noted is that people who have not been convicted of a crime often spend excessively long times in detention at Cook County Jail. Last year, Cook County enacted legislation developed by Chicago Appleseed and its partners establishing a pilot drug-testing program. It enables police to test suspicious substances onsite, thus helping to prevent the improper jailing of thousands of individuals every year.
• Sixth Amendment project – In her research, Van Cleve found that the courts, in their eagerness to dispose of cases as quickly as possible, sometimes deprived defendants of their rights. The Collaboration for Justice (Collaboration) – the joint social justice effort of Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers uncovered an example of this when we learned that some Cook County judges were not conducting constitutionally required indigency hearings, resulting in low-income people being deprived of their Sixth Amendment right to a public defender. In response to our advocacy efforts, the Court to issue a General Administration Order to correct the problem. We continue to monitor the situation with court-watching and interviews.
• Court costs, fines, and fees – Research has shown that the implosion of court fines, fees, and costs has disproportionately affected racial minorities. The Collaboration has prepared a report on court fines, fees, and costs, which will include recommendations aimed at reducing or eliminating these unfair financial burdens.

Van Cleve reminded the audience that the struggle for human rights begins, not in faraway countries, but in our own backyard. For native Chicagoan Van Cleve as well as Chicago Appleseed, our backyard is the Cook County courts. We believe that securing human rights at the local level is vital because, in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.”