Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Launching our online merchandise shop!

We are so excited to announce the launch of our online store! Help support our work by publicizing our mission while you're out and about and by gifting our merchandise to your friends. Go to chicagoappleseed.org/shop to shop available products, such as Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair C...

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...

Public Comment to Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA): End Pretextual Vehicle Stops

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts is a member of the Free2Move Coalition, an alliance of community and advocacy organizations working to create a safer, more racially equitable system of traffic safety in Chicago and advocating for the end of pretextual vehicle stops. Pretextual stops occur w...

NEW: Second-Ever Class of the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago Capstone Report, “School or Prisons,” Now Published

The forward, below, was written by David Schrodt, Board Member of the National Appleseed Network, Board Member of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and Leader of the Collaboration for Justice’s FJLOC Working Group This report is authored by the second-ever class of the Future Justice La...

Statement on RJCC Expansion to Sauk Village

Last month, the Circuit Court of Cook County expanded its Restorative Justice Community Court (RJCC) program into Sauk Village, a suburb just south of Chicago. The new RJCC is the first of its kind in Chicago’s suburbs, joining a line-up of Chicago-based RJCCs in North Lawndale, Avondale, and Englew...