Bond Reform Measure Signed

“The county should not be using bond being posted by non-convicted individuals as a revenue source. It’s a tax on poor black and brown people primarily,” said Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey, quoted in a WBEZ story on a new law concerning processing fees in the criminal court. The measure cap...
August 26, 2015

Ensuring the Public Defense of Indigent Defendants in Cook County

The Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, a joint group of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, has released a report on whether criminal defendants in Chicago’s felony preliminary hearing courtrooms receive the public defense required by the Sixth Amendment to t...
August 19, 2015

Victory for Fair Sentencing of Children

Last month, Illinois Coalition for the Fair Sentencing of Children, Restore Justice Illinois and the Bluhm Legal Clinic celebrated the passage of their House Bill 2741. The Bill eliminates mandatory life-without-parole sentences for youth under 18 at the time of the offense and requires judges to co...
August 13, 2015

Law Professor Dan Coyne Named Independent Reviewer of Burge Torture Claims

On May 6, the Chicago City Council, after years of pressure by community organizations, passed the Budget Reparations Ordinance, a $5.5 million fund to make financial amends to black Chicagoans systematically tortured by former Chicago Police Commander John Burge and his officers between 1972 and 19...
July 1, 2015
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...
June 1, 2015