Featured Resource: ABA Criminal Justice Section

The ABA's Criminal Justice Section "State Policy Implementation Project" includes a collection of research and recommendations proposing five reforms: 1. Pre-Trial Release Reform 2. Decriminalization of Minor Offenses 3. Effective Reentry Programs 4. Increased Use of Parole and Probation 5. Comm...

Links of Interest for the Week — May 20, 2011

Immigration Court Reform: Human Rights Watch presented testimony to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary about reducing the immigration court backlog through decreasing transfers and providing counsel. Criminal Justice Reform: Chicago Appleseed does not work in the area of prison reform but sev...

Volunteer Court-Watching

Our next training session for volunteer court-watchers, assisting the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County, is May 26 at our office at 11:00 am. The training lasts a little over an hour and explains both the mechanics of our court-watching program, as well as the goals and procedures of th...

How Court-Watching Supports Our Work

To support its mission of research-based advocacy, Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice operates several court-watching programs. Court-watching serves Appleseed’s dual purposes of research and advocacy particularly well and is a central component of all our research into how the courts are functionin...

An Introduction to Illinois Redistricting

The 2010 Census results are in, and the big news is that Illinois has grown a mere 3% in the last decade, while Chicago has shrunk by nearly 7%, or 200,000 people. The data indicates that black and Hispanic Chicagoans are migrating from the city to the suburbs, taking up residence in Chicago’s so-ca...