Access to Community Treatment Court Celebrates Third Graduation

by Ali Abid, Senior Criminal Justice Policy Analyst at Chicago Appleseed On December 2, 2016, Cook County's Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court achieved a major milestone by celebrating its third graduation for individuals who successfully completed the problem-solving court program. In tota...

The ACT Initiative Is Bringing Best Practices to Cook County’s Criminal Courts

In 2013, Chicago Appleseed helped the Circuit Court of Cook County design and establish the Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court, an Adult Redeploy Illinois program. Like all ARI initiatives, the ACT Court was designed to divert people charged with nonviolent crimes from the Illinois prison sys...

Budget Standoff Threatens Flagship Court Reform

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin published an editorial by Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice regarding the impact of the state fiscal crisis on the state's flagship prison diversion program, Adult Redeploy Illinois. The full text is reprinted below and a .pdf is available here: In this week’s state...

Stories from ACT Court Ambassadors

At the Collaboration for Justice's Annual Luncheon on Friday, October 16, we honored the Access to Community Treatment Court of Cook County with our Commitment to Justice Award. We also recognized three extraordinary graduates of the ACT Court--Lester, Angelique, and Cynthia--who attended the lunch...