Cook County Budget Cuts Could Threaten Fundamental Rights of Indigent Defendants

Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers strongly urged the County Board to refrain from cutting budgets of the Cook County Public Defender's and State's Attorney's offices in a public letter yesterday. Cuts to the Public Defender's budget would threaten the constitutio...
October 19, 2017

Cook County Chief Judge Announces New Order Limiting Use of Monetary Bond

Chicago Appleseed and our partner Chicago Council of Lawyers applaud today’s announcement by Timothy C. Evans, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, that his office will direct judges to set monetary bonds only in amounts that people can pay. This move brings Cook County in line with a re...
July 17, 2017

Cook County State’s Attorney Announces New Policy for Bond Recommendations

On Monday, June 12th, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced that her office has instituted a new policy instructing her prosecutors to recommend I-Bonds in many kinds of cases. In Illinois, I-Bonds are the form of pretrial release that does not require payment of money before release. I-Bo...
June 15, 2017

Illinois Takes Small First Step Toward Bail Reform

On June 9, 2017, Governor Rauner signed SB 2034 into law. SB 2034 covers two distinct areas of criminal law: the state RICO law and bail. First, effective immediately, it extends state RICO Act (“Illinois Street Gang And Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Law”) for an additional 5 years....
June 9, 2017