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Advocates Issue Open Letter regarding COVID-19: Cook County must Decarcerate to Protect Public Health

Open Letter from 70+ Local Advocates to Cook County regarding COVID-19 and Cook County Jail: Protect Public Health through Decarceration Across the world, the impact of the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic has increased with each passing day. The highly contagious respiratory illness has been de...

Illinois State Capitol, Photo by Daniel Schwen

Chicago Appleseed Placed on Study Committee for Drug Field-Testing Program

On August 21, 2015, HB356, a bill establishing a pilot drug field-testing program was enacted, having passed both houses of the Illinois legislature and being signed by Governor Rauner. The bill, chiefly sponsored by Representative Zalewski in the House and Senator Harmon in the Senate, was develope...

A New Mandatory Minimum for Gun Crime Will Cause Further Pre-Trial Delay And Jail Overcrowding

With the support of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, HB2265 / SB 1342 was recently introduced to the Illinois General Assembly with the goal of imposing a mandatory three-year minimum prison sentence for people convicted of illegal use of a weapon. Our friends at the John Howard Association—in recent articles o...

Reducing Jail Overcrowding in Cook County

The Cook County jail is nearly full again, jumping two seasons ahead of its usual autumn peak. On March 2nd, the Chicago Tribune reported on one reasonable means to reduce the jail population safely and cost-effectively--by tracking defendants on GPS monitors while they await trial. And there are ma...

New York Times Joins Advocates in Opposing Costly Jail Telephone Calls

The New York Times lent its voice to a growing advocacy effort combating exorbitant telephone call fees from jail, from which many municipalities, including Cook County, generate considerable revenue. Spurred in part by the Prison Policy Initiative's latest report, "The Price to Call Home: State-Sa...

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