Tag Archives: Electronic Monitoring

The Shriver Center for Poverty Law, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, and MediaJustice have released our report Cages Without Bars: Pretrial Electronic Monitoring Across the United States. This report, which was created with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as p...

This week, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts gave testimony at two Cook County Board of Commissioners meetings on September 20 and September 22 to warn against the harms caused by electronic surveillance.  At the first Board of Commissioners meeting on September 20, our Director of Po...

In late 2020, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts contracted with the Cook County Justice Advisory Council (JAC) to provide technical assistance for a review of the pretrial electronic monitoring (EM) programs in Cook County. The aims of the study included developing strategies to keep people a...

Electronic monitoring (EM) is a form of incarceration in which a person is ordered to wear an ankle shackle that records their location. In Cook County, the Sheriff runs a pretrial electronic monitoring program that combines location monitoring with house arrest. Individuals charged with crimes—who...

As we have reported before, the Cook County Felony Courts saw a massive slowdown in case resolutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because in-person courts were closed for the majority of 2020 and some of 2021, trials became extremely rare. At the same time, other kinds of case dispositions, like gu...