On a day in which they honored
Criminal Division Presiding Judge Paul P. Biebel Jr., the Chicago
Appleseed Fund for Justice and the
Chicago Council of Lawyers
said they have made significant progress on a project to examine
the criminal justice system in
Cook
County.
In accepting the Commitment to Justice award Tuesday afternoon,
Biebel said it came on the 10th anniversary of his appointment as
a Cook County judge by Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow,
who has since retired.
"What I do as a judge is truly a labor of love," Biebel said.
Biebel received the award during the annual luncheon of the two
groups, held at the Chicago Athletic Association,
12 S. Michigan Ave.
Biebel, along with
Cook
County
State's
Attorney Richard A. Devine and Public Defender Edwin A. Burnette,
is cooperating in the groups' research project.
Mary E. Anderson, president of the Appleseed board of directors,
told the luncheon attendees the project is approaching the stage
where the groups will make recommendations for improving the court
system. The project was announced at last year's joint luncheon of
the two groups.
Lynn Sweet,
Washington,
D.C., bureau chief
for the Chicago Sun-Times, was the luncheon's keynote speaker.
Sweet recounted recent conflict between House Speaker J. Dennis
Hastert, R-Ill., and U.S. Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., over
legislation to bolster security for federal judges. The measure
has stalled for the time being.
In a moment of levity, Sweet also told the crowd about her first
meeting with U.S. Sen. Barack H. Obama, D-Ill., now being touted
as a possible presidential candidate in 2008. Sweet said she met
Obama when he was running for Congress and stopped by the
Sun-Times Washington bureau to introduce himself.
"This lanky young fellow strides in and the first thing he does is
hand me a book," Sweet said. "He said it was his autobiography.
How audacious, I thought."
In his remarks, Biebel praised Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C.
Evans and the people who work in the criminal justice system. But
he also talked about the crises facing the system and what steps
the courts, attorneys and others have taken to face them.
"The biggest crisis we have in our system is the proliferation of
drugs," Biebel said.
Biebel said 50 percent of defendants sent to prison from the
courthouse at 26th Street and
California Avenue
are sentenced for drug offenses. And 70 percent of defendants
coming into the court system are charged with crimes related
directly or indirectly to drugs.
Along with drugs, Biebel cited gangs as a problem facing the court
system. He said the
Chicago police department has
estimated there are 68,000 known gang members in
Chicago and 100,000 in
Cook
County.
"There are people who tell me privately those numbers are low,"
Biebel added.
He said profits from the gang-controlled drug trade in the city
reach $1 billion a year, the same amount as the county's annual
budget for public safety.
Biebel also cited jail overcrowding, the increasing number of
women in jail, and ways to deal with mentally ill defendants as
problems the court system faces.
In response, the courts are working with a police department
crisis intervention team to help police better interact with
people suffering from mental illness, Biebel said. He praised the
Cook
County
sheriff's boot camp, which provides an alternative to prison for
young offenders, and the state's attorney's office's "drug
school." Biebel said the county's mental health and drug courts
are a model for the nation.
"The criminal justice system is too important to leave alone,"
Biebel said.
Biebel also spoke about disproportionate minority representation
in the prison system as well as recidivism and the problems faced
by felons trying to reenter society.
He said the reality of
Central Bond Court
is that "virtually everybody has got a record. Virtually,
everybody's got a long record, and they're coming back in the
system."
"If we spend $25,000 a year to house somebody in a jail or prison
when we can do good programs for $8,000 to $10,000, it seems to me
that's what we should be doing," Biebel said.
Julie Dona, research associate for Chicago Appleseed, which is
handling the research part of the criminal justice project, said
in an interview Wednesday that researchers have interviewed more
than 110 attorneys and judges who work in the felony courts.
Researchers also observed more than 550 felony court hearings at
the Criminal Courts Building and received more than 90
questionnaires from prosecutors and defense attorneys who were not
interviewed.
Researchers also interviewed police officers, defendants and
mental health specialists, Dona said. She said she hopes that the
report's findings will be released in January. She praised the key
players in the court system for allowing access needed to do the
study.
"I think that in the criminal justice system in
Cook
County,
there's a really great opportunity here, a window of opportunity
for implementing real reform," Dona said.
Copyright
© 2006, Law
Bulletin Publishing Company.