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In 2013, Chicago Appleseed helped the Circuit Court of Cook County design and establish the Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Court, an Adult Redeploy Illinois program. Like all ARI initiatives, the ACT Court was designed to divert people charged with nonviolent crimes from the Illinois prison system. Since the ACT Court formally launched in the spring of 2014, Appleseed has provided continuous research and operations support, including currently serving as the project manager for both the ACT Court and the HOPE Court, another ARI program.

Beyond simply supporting these two courts, Appleseed leads the “ACT Initiative,” an effort to bring the evidence-based policies of the ACT Court into other applicable courtrooms and programs in the criminal division. One key function of the ACT Initiative has been convening working groups dedicated to training and improving the procedures of the courts that include representatives from the Office of the Chief Judge, Adult Probation, Cook County Health and Hospital System, community-based treatment providers, the ACT judge and staff, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, and the State’s Attorney’s and Public Defenders’ offices. The working groups’ bimonthly meetings have brought together previously siloed stakeholders to share ideas, discuss policy changes, and plan needed trainings.

The impact of the ACT Initiative has been tremendous. Its primary successes are detailed below.

All problem-solving courts began vacating convictions upon graduation.

Always looking for ways to reward success and motivate ACT Court participants, the planning team decided that it would vacate the convictions of all ACT Court graduates. Through discussion of this during the ACT Initiative meetings, it was decided that convictions would be vacated for all successful problem-solving court graduates. As of spring 2015, all 20 Cook County problem-solving courts are routinely vacating the convictions of participants upon graduation. Vacating the most recent conviction can allow graduates to seal or expunge their records sooner than they would otherwise be able to due to waiting periods, thus substantially decreasing barriers to employment.

Weekend eligibility screenings increased access to all problem-solving courts.

Since 2012, the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office has operated the “Bond Court Initiative,” which screened all defendants coming through felony bond court to determine whether they were eligible for referral to a problem-solving court (“alternative sentencing”) or the State’s Attorney’s “alternative prosecution” programs. Unfortunately, the screenings only occurred on weekdays, leaving the substantial number of defendants—nearly 40% of all defendants—entering bond court on weekends without quick access to these diversion programs. Through the leadership of the Public Defender’s Office working with the State’s Attorney’s Office as part of the ACT Initiative, a process was developed that allows Assistant Public Defenders to screen defendants over the weekend, thus providing access to alternative prosecution and sentencing where there previously was none. Thanks to the initiative of the Public Defender’s Office, these weekend screenings have ensured that all felony bond court defendants are screened for possible diversion since Spring 2016.

New trainings and tools have increased participants’ access to community treatment.

Through the ACT Initiative, stakeholders such as the ACT Court judge and Adult Probation identified joint areas where improved resources were needed. One of these issues was improved connection to community resources. In response to this need, the initiative’s Training Working Group partnered with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law to plan a training on “Connecting to Treatment via Medicaid.” The training taught approximately 60 Adult Probation Officers about the following topics: (1) introduction to Medicaid; (2) navigating managed care; and (3) accessing other benefits and community-based resources through online tools. It was offered twice in May 2016 and reached the Probation Officers for all Cook County problem-solving courts.

Additionally, starting with a Chicago Appleseed project for the ACT Court program, the ACT Initiative team recruited additional partners to develop an online resource-mapping tool that would be easily accessible to Probation Officers and others. In May 2016, a team comprised of Chicago Appleseed, the Shriver Center, the Harris School on Public Policy Studies, the Adult Probation Department, the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, and Datamade won funding from the Michael Reese Health Trust to further build and maintain this web-based tool that will enable community corrections officers to identify and match community-based resources with their clients’ needs. Once complete, the tool will be available to Probation Officers and others, dramatically increasing access to community services.

Improved communication and coordination between agencies is providing a model for the future.

Before the ACT Initiative, there was little structure to facilitate regular communication between the involved agencies and stakeholders. Now, with regular meetings, decision-makers are able to collectively address necessary policy and procedure changes related to not just the ACT Court, but to the criminal division as a whole. The working groups have provided a forum for routine communication and collaboration that are resulting in improved efficacy and efficiency at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building. As such, they offer a glimpse of the rewards of establishing of a permanent criminal justice coordinating council for Cook County. To this end, Chicago Appleseed has prepared a proposal for such a coordinating council based on best practices in jurisdictions throughout the U.S. This coordinating council would provide the opportunity to bring more fairness, efficiency, and effectiveness to our criminal courts in the same way that the ACT Initiative is demonstrating how collaboration and coordination among stakeholders can improve our problem-solving courts.