Court Transparency Archives - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

ICYMI — Chicago Appleseed Hosted a Press Conference Last Week to Announce Release of New Report

A week ago, Chicago Appleseed hosted a press conference to announce the release of our new report: 500 Days Forward, 10 Years Back: An Evaluation of Eileen O'Neill Burke's First 500 Days as Cook County State's Attorney. The report explains the policies put in place by the Burke administration in its...

NEW REPORT — 500 Days Forward, 10 Years Back: An Evaluation of Eileen O’Neill Burke’s First 500 Days as Cook County State’s Attorney

Chicago Appleseed has been following, researching, and reporting on the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) for over a decade. In our new report, 500 Days Later…10 Years Back: An Evaluation of Eileen O’Neill Burke’s First 500 Days as Cook County State’s Attorney, we present a comprehensive...

Why do we need court-watchers in Illinois? The answer lies in our open records laws.

Community court-watching is exactly what it sounds like: members of the public taking time out of their days to watch court proceedings. But why? In Chicago Appleseed’s Court Observation & Education Program (COEP), we see court-watching not only as an informative experience for volunteers but...

Undermining Transparency & Accountability, Federal Court Ruling Allows CPD to Disable Body-Worn Cameras after Officer-Involved Shootings

In January of 2024, the Illinois Attorney General moved for judicial resolution in a dispute with the City of Chicago over the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) body-worn camera policy. Following the cover-up of the CPD’s murder of Laquan McDonald, the federal government implemented a consen...

NEW REPORT—What We Don’t Know About the Courts: The Far-Reaching Consequences of the Judicial Exemption to the FOIA in Illinois

In our newly published report, What We Don’t Know About the Courts: The Far-Reaching Consequences of the Judicial Exemption to the FOIA in Illinois, Chicago Appleseed explains the judicial exemption from Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and this exemption’s broad consequences for data tra...

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