diversion courts Archives - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

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...

NEW – Restorative Justice, Community, and the Courts: An Analysis of the Impact, Benefits, and Elements “Constantly in Conflict” in Chicago’s Restorative Justice Community Courts

Our new report examines the Circuit Court of Cook County’s three Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCCs) located in the Avondale (North Side), Englewood (South Side), and North Lawndale (West Side) neighborhoods of Chicago. The North Lawndale court opened in 2017, and Englewood and Avondale fol...

Judicial Discretion in Cook County’s Problem-Solving Courts

Cook County’s problem-solving courts (PSCs) are specialized diversion courts that work with accused people whose mental health conditions and/or substance usage may have contributed to their arrests. The PSCs include Drug Treatment Courts, Veterans Treatment Courts, and Mental Health Courts; in othe...

NEW REPORT | One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are excited to release our new report, One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County. In it, we offer a holistic picture of the scope of specialty (or "problem-solving") courts, which...

Discussing Diversion in Cook County: A Starting Point for Employing Diversion Strategies

by Michael Levy, Staff Attorney at Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice At Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice’s “Diversion Strategies” forum on June 27, 2012, representatives from across Cook County clarified their goals for reforming the criminal justice system. With an open invitation to the public...