Latest News - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Policy Brief: Early Criminal Case Assessment in Urban Jurisdictions

Chicago Appleseed is pleased to release a policy brief discussing the use of early prosecutorial review of drug cases in Philadelphia, PA and Brooklyn, NY--and implications for Cook County. You can find this brief and all of our latest criminal justice policy research at our Criminal Justice page....

Links of Interest: August 20-24, 2012

Judicial Performance and Elections The Election Law Blog has copies of the amicus brief filed in support of cert filed jointly by six states and a separate brief filed by Alaska in the Voting Rights Act case. Petitioners Shelby County and John Nix filed the initial petition in July seeking Suprem...

Donor Diversity through Public Matching Funds

In May, the Brennan Center for Justice and the Campaign Finance Institute released a report on how public financing improves diversity of small donors and changes how candidates view potential donors and potential constituents. The report’s authors note that the data set is rather small, but the tre...

Policy Brief: Early Case Assessment in Urban Jurisdictions

The twin goals of early case assessment are to devote more resources to those cases for which a conviction can confidently be obtained, and also to decline to prosecute, reduce charges, or divert other cases. Our Early Case Assessment Policy Brief takes a look at how the District Attorney's Offices...

It’s Time to Coordinate on Diversion

This piece originally appeared at the Huffington Post. In response to growing concern about violent crime and shrinking budgets, public officials have adopted a number of initiatives to prioritize use of scarce resources. And despite an ordinance requiring a cooperative approach to diversion of of...