Courts and Public Accountability

“Judge Sullivan, Take Note”, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune Monday, June 9th, reminds us that the courtrooms do not belong to the judges, they belong to the people. The editorial references two recent steps by courts administrators to make Illinois’ courts more open and transparent: the Illinoi...
June 10, 2014

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