| October 2005 From: Executive Director, Malcolm Rich To: Members/Friends of the Chicago Council of Lawyers & the Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice In this e-Newsletter:
The 2005 Annual Luncheon was a huge success! On September 28, 2005, Chicago Appleseed joined with the Chicago Council of Lawyers to host our Annual Luncheon. The program marked the 36th Annual Meeting of the Council and the eighth Annual Meeting of Chicago Appleseed. Our biggest fundraiser to date, the Annual Luncheon raised over $25,000 for our new Criminal Justice Project: An Examination of the Criminal Justice System in Cook County. This new project involves identifying problems and proposing meaningful solutions relating to lawyering, judicial performance, due process and basic rights. We will also examine the intersections of homelessness, mental health and the criminal justice system in Cook County. The focus of this project includes the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, the Cook County Public Defender's Office, private defense practitioners, judges and criminal defendants. Our comprehensive study of the Cook County criminal justice system will be followed by our recommendations for fair and just change. To set the stage for these initiatives, keynote speakers Randolph Stone and Steve Bogira each presented their unique perspective on the criminal justice system. Randolph Stone is the former Public Defender for Cook County and is a clinical professor and director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago. Steve Bogira is the award-winning reporter for the Chicago Reader and the author of Courtroom 302, which examines one year in one courtroom of America's busiest felony courthouse. The Commitment to Justice Award went to Patricia Logue, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, for her commitment to the protection of civil rights and dedication to family law. Over 300 attendees enjoyed lunch, presentations and the company of coworkers and colleagues. Two roundtrip tickets on American Airlines were raffled off. Judge Sebastian Patti was the lucky winner. "It pays to support the criminal justice program at Chicago Appleseed…and that is the order of the court!" he said. Special thanks to our 2005 Annual Luncheon Contributing Sponsors Epstein,
Becker & Green We would
also like to thank: Chicago Appleseed, in consultation with the Council, is implementing a research project aimed at surveying the policies, procedures, and outcomes of the criminal justice system from arrest through appeal, with a focus on felony trials held at the Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California. The project is funded, in part, by the Chicago Community Trust. We are looking for volunteer lawyers, paralegals, students, research specialists, and journalists to help design survey instruments, conduct interviews, and conduct sociolegal research. For more information about Chicago Appleseed, check out our website at www.chicagoappleseed.org.
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