Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

End of Year Fundraising Campaign

We're very excited to announce that with 14 days left in our end of the year fundraising campaign, we have only $7,000 left to raise in order to meet our matching donor's goal! A generous anonymous donor has pledged to match all contributions to our end of the year fundraising campaign up to $40,00...

The Capacity Problem: What Cook County Can Do To Move Toward NYC’s Plan To Keep The Mentally Ill Out of Jail

The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, recently unveiled a plan to reduce the number of mentally ill people kept in jail. The plan hopes to address a common and malignant feature of criminal justice systems throughout the country: that jails have been become--in many places--the only public hou...

Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers Urge Governor Quinn to Veto Bill Which Will Reduce Minority Representation on Juries

Published on: December 12, 2014 On December 11, 2014, Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers sent the following request to Governor Quinn: ___________________ Dear Governor Quinn: On behalf of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, I am writing to ur...

A Police Accountability Policy Recommendation from the Chicago Council of Lawyers

Chicago Should Annually Disclose Police Officers Named in a High Number of Complaints December 2014 by the Chicago Council of Lawyers' Civil Liberties Committee I. Recommendation. Consistent with the March 2014 ruling of the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court in Kalven v. City of Chic...

Judge Gloria Chevere Re-Assigned for Wrongfully Jailing Defendants

Last week, the Chicago Tribune reported that Cook County Criminal Court Judge Gloria Chevere was re-assigned to a non-trial civil administration call, following a report that she was wrongly jailing defendants for contempt. The re-assignment order for Judge Chevere also assigns the Judge to a peer m...