Criminal Courts Archives - Page 12 of 39 - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Public (In)Access to Judicial Branch Data in Illinois

In 2019, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and our pro bono partner, DLA Piper, looked at the open records laws, the Freedom of Information Act, and other public access policies in all 50 states to determine where Illinois stands in terms of judicial transparency. We found that Illin...

Loyola Report Reveals Undue Punitive Effect of Gun Possession Convictions on Young Black Men in Cook County

As the summer ends, gun violence continues to dominate headlines in Chicago; so far this year, there have been over 2,000 people hurt or killed by shootings. As the city continues to grieve and look for effective and equitable solutions to gun issues, the importance of data-driven policymaking is cr...

You Have the Right to Chronically-Underfunded and Overworked Counsel: The need for improved support of public defense in Cook County and beyond.

BACKGROUND The concept of a public defender is relatively modern in the American legal system. For most of U.S. history, being poor meant defense by an attorney was unavailable to you. That all changed, however, in the seminal case, Gideon v. Wainwright, when the Supreme Court found it to be the...

Checking on the Cook County Criminal Court’s Case Backlog

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts has been tracking the status of Illinois Courts’ shutdown. With COVID-19 causing the courts to shut down and the Illinois Supreme Court to pause speedy trial rights, case processing slowed to a crawl. In April...

Which states protect your right to communicate after arrest?

The Governor signed the Safety Accountability Fairness and Equity - Today (SAFE-T) Act in February of 2021. Among the many police and criminal legal system provisions in the law, the SAFE-T Act (IL PA 101-0652) solidifies the right to communicate for all people arrested in Illinois. In this...

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