Ali Abid Joins Chicago Appleseed As Criminal Justice Fellow

Chicago Appleseed is excited to announce a new addition to our team. Ali Abid joins Chicago Appleseed as a Criminal Justice Fellow. He will research and develop systemic reform within Cook County. Ali is a graduate of the John Marshall Law School where he was an editor of the John Marshall Law Revi...
April 14, 2013

“Bailing Out of a Medieval System”

As Chicago searches for ways to reduce its exploding jail population, it need look no further than neighboring Rockford. Tom  Warkowski, a former Winnebago County Assistant State's Attorney was appointed Jail Population Analyst under a court order by the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois to r...
March 21, 2013

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...
March 18, 2013

Policy Brief: Community Courts in Cook County

Today we release a two-part policy brief discussing an alternative prosecution strategy called community-based justice. Part I makes the case for community-base justice by comparing Cook County’s current misdemeanor justice system--which adjudicates over 150,000 misdemeanors annually (pdf)--with com...
February 27, 2013