Volunteer Court-Watching

Our next training session for volunteer court-watchers, assisting the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County, is May 26 at our office at 11:00 am. The training lasts a little over an hour and explains both the mechanics of our court-watching program, as well as the goals and procedures of th...
May 9, 2011

Links of Interest for May 1-6, 2011

Criminal Justice University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon Garrett discusses at Slate false confessions and eyewitness testimony in the wake of Illinois abolishing the death penalty.  New York’s Chief Judge is working to create a system which provides counsel to indigent defendants at arraig...
May 5, 2011

Illinois Payday Loan Reform Takes Hold

Illinois’ payday loan and consumer installment loan laws, the Consumer Installment Loan Act and the Payday Loan Reform Act (collectively referred to as CILA / PLRA), have taken effect. This is exciting news for a state that has "more payday loan stores than McDonald's," according to a 2004 statement...
May 5, 2011

How Court-Watching Supports Our Work

To support its mission of research-based advocacy, Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice operates several court-watching programs. Court-watching serves Appleseed’s dual purposes of research and advocacy particularly well and is a central component of all our research into how the courts are functionin...
May 3, 2011

Links of Interest for April 18-22, 2010

Criminal Justice Court Reform The Supreme Court heard argument in Tapia v. United States (10-5400) on the question of whether a district court may give a defendant a longer prison sentence to promote rehabilitation. SCotUSblog has documents and an argument recap. Questions of rehabilitation, recid...
April 24, 2011