Progress Through Partnership
E-Newsletter for members and friends of Chicago Appleseed
and the Chicago Council of Lawyers

March 2008

In this e-Newsletter:

Get Involved: Volunteer Opportunity for the Criminal Justice Project
 Joint Project of Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers

dual logoChicago Appleseed released its Report on the Felony Courts in Chicago in December 2007, which included 50 recommendations for systemic reform. Through a public forum on December 13th and follow-up conversations with judges, lawyers, and representatives of advocacy groups, civic organizations, and community organizations, we have focused our recommendations on the following goals:

ˇ Establish a court watching initiative at 26th Street. Presiding Judge Paul Biebel has approved this program.

ˇ Overhaul of bond court procedures and develop a program in cooperation with the Cook County Public Defender's Office through which data concerning the flight risk of defendants are collected and provided to defense counsel and judges. The Cook County Public Defender has approved this proposed program.

ˇ Establish a legislative review commission to examine proposed state legislation for its unfunded impact on the criminal justice system.

ˇ Establish a budgeting oversight committee which will allow the major stakeholders in the criminal justice system to work together to prepare a merit-based budget for Cook County funding, for private foundation and corporate funding, and for pro bono contributions.

ˇ Work to create a new Cook County adult probation department utilizing a change-agent model which will allow the department to seek vocational, educational, and treatment alternatives.

ˇ Work with the Offices of the Cook County Public Defender and State's Attorney to bring more resources into the offices and to help bring about improvements in the day-to-day policies and procedures of the offices.

We are asking pro bono lawyers and law students to volunteer their time to do court watching in felony trial courtrooms at 26th Street, with special attention to bond court, drug courts, and mental health courts. The time commitment for each lawyer would be 10 hours, including training and 2 court observation sessions: 90 minutes of training, 5 hours of court observation (2 sessions), 2 hours of traveling to and from the courthouse, 1.5 hours of completing observation forms.

We are asking pro bono lawyers, law students, and social workers to make corroboration phone calls regarding concerning the flight risk of defendants in Central Bond Court. The resulting report will be provided to defense counsel and judges.

We are asking pro bono lawyers to participate in work groups overseeing the development of initiatives to create a legislative review commission, the budgeting oversight committee, and the development and funding of a new approach to probation in Cook County. Each of these initiatives involve research and drafting legislative and policy proposals.

 

Get Involved: Volunteer Opportunity for the Parental Involvement Program
 A Project of Chicago Appleseed

caffj no wordsChicago Appleseed has a three tier approach to systemic reform regarding parental involvement in education. We are the technical assistance provider to the Governor's Parental Leadership Council, created by Executive Order. We work with the Illinois Parent Information Resource Center, a parent resource funded through the No Child Left Behind Act, to train parents to be better advocates on both parenting skills and education policy issues. We work with individual schools and school districts both in Chicago and the suburbs, to do parent involvement surveys and to develop school/parent/community organization partnerships. Through our work with the Leadership Council, we are assisting in the development of a statewide parental involvement policy that will be implemented through the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). It is a goal of Chicago Appleseed that the ISBE provide technical assistance on parental involvement initiatives to school districts throughout Illinois. This can be accomplished through the development of a statewide parental involvement policy.

We seek the assistance of pro bono lawyers in investigating those boards of education throughout the U.S. that provide parental involvement technical assistance to determine what is included in this technical assistance and how it is provided. The work will involve the preparation of interrogatory-type documents to be sent to key individuals in state boards of education, follow-up interviews, and analysis. The goal is to prepare a policy statement on the delivery of parental involvement technical assistance which will become part of the Illinois Parental Involvement Policy, a policy required by the federal government under the No Child Left Behind Act.

In addition to applying the information gathered to a draft parental involvement policy, the analysis should also include a legal analysis to determine how such a parental involvement policy will affect or be affected by state regulations dealing with education. We are looking for an examination of state regulations that could affect a parental involvement education policy and recommendations as to how to deal with any potential complications.

Pro bono lawyers will work with Chicago Appleseed Research and Policy Associate, José Meléndez, who will offer training and mentoring.

 

Get Involved: Attend Our Fundraising Event "Building Strong Communities"
 Event benefits Chicago Appleseed and Appleseed

caffj no wordsJoin us on April 3 as we honor:

Ron Grzywinski & Mary Houghton,
Founders of ShoreBank

Schiff Hardin LLP
Lowell Sachnoff of Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver

Keynote speakers will be Pulitzer-prize winning author and former member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board Cornelia Grumman and Hon. Abner Mikva, former congressman, federal judge and counsel to President Clinton. Senator Richard Durbin will participate in the program with a video message.

Thursday, April 3, 2008
Intercontinental Hotel, 505 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611
VIP Jazz Reception begins at 6:00pm
Dinner begins at 7:00pm

Sponsors to date include:

PACESETTER
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Sonnenschein Nath and Rosenthal LLP

BENEFACTOR
Huron Consulting Group, Inc.
Pritzker Family Foundation
Schiff Hardin LLP

PATRON
Abbott Laboratories
Allstate Insurance Company
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd.
Jenner & Block LLP
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP
Michael J. Freed
Reed Smith LLP
Robinson, Curley & Clayton PC
ShoreBank
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

CONTRIBUTOR
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Sheldon Baskin
Marjorie and Charles Benton
Bingham McCutchen
Business and Professional People for the Public Interest
DLA Piper US LLP
Krahl Construction
Littler Mendelson PC
Michael Polsky
Alan N. Press
Robinwood Consulting, LLC
Sentinel Technologies, Inc.
Jocelyn Stoller
Marvin & Lynn Tenenbaum
Robert & Marie Weissbourd
Thomson West
U.S. Equities Asset Management LLC- Sears Tower
Walgreen Company

A limited number of tickets are still available for this exciting event. For more information, contact Amanda Grant at 312-988-6599 or agrant@chicagoappleseed.org.

Get Involved: Attend a MCLE Forum on Police Accountability in Chicago
 The Chicago Council of Lawyers and Chicago Appleseed present:

dual logo
Forum on Police Accountability in Chicago:
Meaningful Change or Work in Progress?

Date and Time
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
12-1:30pm

Speakers
Illana Rosenzweig
Chief Administrator of Chicago Independent Police Review Authority (CIPRA)

Peter Brust
Deputy Superintendent in charge of Chicago Police Department's Bureau of Professional Standards

Place
John Marshall Law School, room 200
315 S. Plymouth Court , Chicago

Also sponsored by:
Chicago Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society
Citizens Alert
John Marshall Law School Faculty

One hour of MCLE credit provided.
There is no charge but please RSVP by April 17th to 312-988-6565 (phone) or ccl@chicagocouncil.org