Decarceration & Diversion Archives - Page 2 of 20 - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

New Year, New State’s Attorney, Higher Jail Population in Cook County

Written by Julian D. Cohen, Brown University, and Kamiryn Braxton Grimes, University of Chicago. Under Cook County’s new State’s Attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke, who assumed office in December of 2024, the county has experienced a substantial rise in its jail population. In just the first six...

Open Letter to the Cook County State’s Attorney: Coalition of 136 Organizations and Community Members Oppose the Felony Review Bypass Program

This morning, a group of 38 organizations and 98 community members, including 8 Chicago Police District Councilors, sent an open letter to Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke urging her to end the Felony Review Bypass Program for gun possession cases in Chicago Police Department Distri...

State’s Attorney’s Felony Review Bypass Program Hinders Due Process and Gives Police Power To File Felony Gun Possession Charges

In January, Cook County State’s Attorney O’Neill Burke began piloting a new program in the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) 7th District (Englewood), changing the rules for how gun possession felony charges are filed. The program has now been expanded to the CPD’s 5th District (Calumet), which is i...

Statement on State’s Attorney Burke’s New Policy Regarding Pretrial Electronic Monitoring

Written by Austin Segal, Research Manager & Jill Dupont Memorial Fellow, and Naomi Johnson, Co-Executive Director. We strongly oppose State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s new policy that requires prosecutors to object on the record in all cases where their petition to detain an accused...

Ignoring Community Voices: Firearm Possession Charges Excluded from Restorative Justice Community Courts

Written by Maya Simkin, Appleseed Network Fellow, Austin Segal, Research Manager & Jill Dupont Memorial Fellow, and Naomi Johnson, Co-Executive Director. It's recently been announced that the Cook County State’s Attorney will no longer divert gun possession cases to the Restorative Justic...

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