Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Links of Interest

What We Read for the week of November 14-18, 2011 Criminal Justice Court Reform: The John Howard Association released its annual Year-End Assessment of Department of Juvenile Justice this week. WBEZ interviewed the author of the report Thursday morning. Earlier this year, JHA criticized the DJJ...

Judicial Campaign Finance, Recusal and Amici.

Chicago Appleseed and the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform have submitted an amicus brief, written by pro bono attorneys at DLA Piper, to the Illinois Supreme Court as it reconsiders Avery v. State Farm. We are excited for this opportunity to address the Illinois Supreme Court on the issue iss...

Links of Interest

What We Read, November 7-11, 2011 Criminal Justice Court Reform: In April, we linked to a This American Life episode about a judge in Georgia’s Drug Court who was punishing defendants harshly in contrast with rehabilitative goals of drugs courts. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Geor...

Smart Criminal Justice Policies Gain Momentum in Chicago, Cook County

This piece originally appeared at the Huffington Post. County and City officials have taken bold yet prudent steps toward sensible, cost-effective public safety policies. The County has expanded use of electronic monitoring and the City is now considering issuing a fine in lieu of arrest for mariju...

Anonymity and Integrity in Researching Judicial Performance

Recently, Chicago Appleseed was asked about unsolicited anonymous comments about judicial retention candidates and whether they play a role in the data collection for the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County’s (the JPC) evaluations. The integrity of our data is paramount and we strive to u...