Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Celebrating 55 Years: Looking Back at the History of the Collaboration for Justice

On June 12th, 2025, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers will be hosting our annual summer social—this year celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Fund for Justice. As we gear up for that anniversary party, we're looking back and the almost six decades of coll...

Presenting Our Strategic Plan

Dear friends, supporters, and allies, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts is delighted to present to you our new strategic plan, which includes our goals for the next three years (2025-2028). This year, 2025, is a pivotal year for our organization. Chicago Appleseed (formerly known...

Ignoring Community Voices: Firearm Possession Charges Excluded from Restorative Justice Community Courts

Written by Maya Simkin, Appleseed Network Fellow, Austin Segal, Research Manager & Jill Dupont Memorial Fellow, and Naomi Johnson, Co-Executive Director. It's recently been announced that the Cook County State’s Attorney will no longer divert gun possession cases to the Restorative Justic...

VICTORY: Sheriff’s Electronic Monitoring Program Will be Phased Out!

This morning - Thursday, November 21, 2024 - the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to pass a budget amendment that significantly reduced funding for the Cook County Sheriff’s pretrial electronic monitoring (EM) program. This puts the county on track to consolidate the two EM programs into one...

NEW REPORT – Punishing Fear: Facts about the “War on Guns” in Chicago

Today we published a new report, Punishing Fear: Facts about the “War on Guns” in Chicago, which analyzes the policies, processes, and sociocultural realities that have led to the hypercriminalization of gun possession—the “War on Guns,” which parallels the historic War on Drugs and has similarly de...