Tag Archives: Pretrial Fairness

This week, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts gave testimony at two Cook County Board of Commissioners meetings on September 20 and September 22 to warn against the harms caused by electronic surveillance.  At the first Board of Commissioners meeting on September 20, our Director of Po...

In late 2020, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts contracted with the Cook County Justice Advisory Council (JAC) to provide technical assistance for a review of the pretrial electronic monitoring (EM) programs in Cook County. The aims of the study included developing strategies to keep people a...

Electronic monitoring (EM) is a form of incarceration in which a person is ordered to wear an ankle shackle that records their location. In Cook County, the Sheriff runs a pretrial electronic monitoring program that combines location monitoring with house arrest. Individuals charged with crimes—who...

On July 1, 2022, the Pretrial Practices Data Oversight Board (“Board”) released a preliminary report in an effort to satisfy statutory requirements laid out in the Pretrial Fairness Act sections of Public Act 101-0652, known as the SAFE-T Act. Per the new law, the Board, convened last July by the Ad...

Cook County leads the nation in exonerations based on false confessions. Between 1972 and 1991, Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge tortured at least 119 people – most of whom were young Black men – in order to force false confessions. Cook County still lives in that legacy: Between January 1989 and...