Today, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved the county’s FY2024 operating budget. The passage of this budget marks yet another opportunity for Cook County to follow through on the promise of the Justice for Black Lives resolution it adopted in 2020. The resolution commits Cook County to efforts “to redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement that promote community health and safety equitably … especially in Black and Brown communities most impacted by violence and incarceration.”  While it is encouraging to see the total and proportional spending on jailing and incarceration decrease in Cook County, we are deeply troubled by many of the Sheriff’s expenditures. 

The Sheriff’s 2024 budget includes an expansion of services that should be housed and funded within the Cook County Health system and community-based organizations. The FY2024 budget more than doubles the Sheriff’s behavioral health budget. Law enforcement agencies have a specific mandate to engage in policing and incarceration and do not have the expertise to provide effective health and human services. It is crucial to the safety of Cook County residents that non-law enforcement professionals be the primary provider of these services. This is especially true for Black and Brown residents for whom encounters with law enforcement are marked by danger, trauma, and entanglement in the criminal legal system. There is absolutely no reason for law enforcement officials to be providing case management, suicide prevention, and violence prevention services when other, better-suited agencies that currently provide these services could instead expand their operations.

For a second year in a row, the County Board has failed to act on the recommendation to reduce the use of electronic monitoring included in the county-contracted evaluation of Cook County Electronic Monitoring. Millions of dollars continue to be spent on the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program, which has destabilized the lives of those subjected to it and has not demonstrated any measurable positive impacts on recidivism or court appearance rates. 

The implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act has caused the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail to drop by more than 600 people in just two months. This historic reform provides an opportunity to divest from the Cook County Department of Corrections and reduce our reliance on arrest, prosecution, and incarceration—which have failed to keep our communities safe. For the last decade, Cook County has led our state in pretrial justice reforms. We must continue to lead by dramatically reducing the use of electronic monitoring and  ensuring that behavioral health services are managed and provided by healthcare professionals, not law enforcement.