Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice Archives - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Illinois State Capitol, Photo by Daniel Schwen

Drug Field Testing Bill Passes

Last week, HB0356, a bill establishing a pilot drug field-testing program for the city of Chicago passed both houses of the Illinois legislature. The bill, chiefly sponsored by Representative Zalewski in the House and Senator Harmon in the Senate, was developed in collaboration with Chicago...

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Supporting Field Testing Bill

Today the Chicago Sun-Times issued an editorial in support of the Field Drug Testing Pilot Bill that Chicago Appleseed was instrumental in developing. The editorial can be found here and previous entries on our blog describing the issue can be found here. The current version of the bill HB3...

The Search for Cook County’s New Public Defender

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has started a search process for the new Public Defender in Cook County. On March 31, 2015, Abishi Cunningham’s six-year term as Public Defender for Cook County will end. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has elected to replace Cunningham with...

Appleseed on Chicago Tonight Dec. 16

Last night I had the great experience of representing Chicago Appleseed on the PBS' Chicago Tonight program, discussing recent attempts by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the Illinois Supreme Court's to control the Cook County Jail Population and improve out pre-trial process. The l...