Chief Judge Timothy Evans Archives - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Cook County Jail’s First COVID-19 Death Could (and Should) Have Been Prevented

Jeffrey Pendleton is the first person known to have died after contracting COVID-19 in the Cook County Jail. His infection and eventual death were avoidable and preventable. Each and every government actor who objected to his release—or contributed to his incarceration in the first place—played a ro...

Charging for a Public Defense: The Impossible Choice Facing Indigent Defendants in Cook County

Today at DNAinfo Chicago, reporter Erin Meyer covers Chicago Appleseed’s recent investigation into judges denying public defenders to defendants without conducting the constitutionally-required indigence hearings. As mentioned previously on this blog, Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court,...

Creative Commons License, attribution Randy von Liski

Chief Judge Evans Orders Indigence Hearing Reform in Response to Chicago Appleseed Investigation

Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court, Timothy C. Evans, issued General Administrative Order No. 2013-11 yesterday in response to a Chicago Appleseed investigation that uncovered a practice where judges were denying defendants a public defender without the required indigence hearing. The Chi...

Coordination is the Key to the Cook County Electronic Monitoring Problem

The April 26th “Change of Subject” column column by Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Eric Zorn discusses the drop in the number of defendants released on electronic home monitoring which is contributing to the critical problem of jail overcrowding in Cook County. The current population of Cook Count...