Reforming the Cook County Parentage Court

Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice had the privilege of providing research and analysis to a task force examining conditions for litigants and attorneys in the Parentage section of Domestic Relations Division of the Cook County Circuit Court. Our full report is now available. Cook County takes an u...
January 20, 2014

An Open Letter from Community-Based Service Providers

You may be aware that the Chicago Transit Authority  will end its program to help ex-offenders gain work experience cleaning rail cars and buses on Dec. 31. We received the following “open letter” from the John Howard Association of Illinois this morning, urging that the program be saved. At Chicag...
December 12, 2013

The Independent Police Review Authority Calls for Engagement to Move Forward

On Wednesday, May 8, 2013 the Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Chicago Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, and the Office of the Cook County Public Defender hosted the forum, Investigating and Reporting on Complaints against Chicago Police Officers, concerning the work of the Indepen...
May 10, 2013
Seal of Cook County, Illinois

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...
April 29, 2013