Bond Court Reforms: A Second Look for Diversion Programs

By Michael Levy, Staff Attorney at Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice At a press conference on July 13, 2012, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a major step toward reforming Cook County’s criminal justice system with the implementation of a coordinated diversion program in central bo...
July 19, 2012

Community Courts and the Fight Against Quality-of-Life Crimes

by Brian Gilbert, Summer Intern with Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice On June 27th of this year, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported here, five-term Alderman Michael Zalewski proposed a bill to raise the fines for adult graffiti taggers from $750 to $2,000, and to mandate a minimum of three days in...
July 16, 2012

Links of Interest: July 9-13, 2012

Judicial Performance and Elections The American Constitution Society reports on a speech by Eric Holder at the NAACP Convention about the DOJ investigations of voter identification laws. Criminal Justice The Center for Court Innovation has an overview of  the Midtown Community Court's STARS p...
July 13, 2012

Judicial Recusal Forum Video & Promising Recusal Standards

By Sarah Swearer, Summer Intern with Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice On May 23, Chicago Appleseed co-sponsored a forum on judicial recusal and campaign finance reform. CAN TV just released the video of the forum, which you can find here: Protecting Fair Courts in a Citizens United World You can...
July 9, 2012