One year ago today, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke took office and immediately began implementing harmful policies that have increased the number of people locked up in Cook County Jail by 14%. This trend is particularly alarming as it comes at a time when Cook County is continuing to experience a historic decrease in both violence and property crimes. By resurrecting the failed policies of mass incarceration, State’s Attorney Burke is making our communities less safe and rolling back progress toward making Cook County’s courts more equitable.

Upon taking office, State’s Attorney Burke’s first action was to announce a policy requiring prosecutors to argue for pretrial jailing for people facing certain charges—even when the attorney does not believe the person poses a threat to public safety. This policy is in direct conflict with the spirit of the Pretrial Fairness Act, which tasks prosecutors with carefully reviewing the facts of each case and the accused person’s individual circumstances before requesting detention. Assistant state’s attorneys have also been instructed to object to pretrial release on electronic monitoring, despite research showing that even people facing the most serious charges can and do succeed in the community while awaiting trial.

It is no coincidence that crime has been trending down as the number of people jailed awaiting trial has decreased over the past decade—it’s because ensuring as many people as possible are home awaiting trial has long-term, positive consequences for those individuals and their communities. People are able to keep their jobs, housing, and community connections while presumed innocent and awaiting their day in court. Every validated study has shown that increased jailing actually leads to negative public safety consequences long-term. Studies have repeatedly shown that even short periods of pretrial jailing increase the likelihood that someone will be arrested again in the future. 
We must not lose sight of what works: investments in community violence interruption programs, substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction programs, affordable housing, and hospital-based violence intervention programs that support the people most impacted by gun violence have all had a tremendous impact by reducing harm and violence in our communities. It would be a mistake to allow a politician, focused on advancing her career at the expense of our communities, to allow us to return to the failed “public safety” policies of the past. It takes a long time for root cause solutions to show results, and we are finally seeing the effect here in Cook County. Let’s not allow State’s Attorney Burke to take us backwards.