General

Upon taking office as the Cook County State’s Attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke has implemented several policy changes that are contributing to a rise in pretrial jailing. It is notable that there [...]

On November 6, 2024, police responding to a 911 call found a father conducting chest compressions on his two-year-old child. Soon after, the child died. At this moment, we should be reflecting on [...]

Last night, the Illinois legislature passed a budget which includes continued funding for the Pretrial Success Grant Program! State funding withheld by the Trump administration created a budget [...]

After more than a year of organizing from communities across Illinois, the Funded Advocacy & Independent Representation (FAIR) Act (HB3363) has passed the state legislature and will be [...]

In 2023, Illinois became the first state in the country to end money bond and expand access to the presumption of innocence. With more people returning to the community, the Pretrial Success [...]

We are deeply disturbed by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s new policy requiring her attorneys to object when a judge denies a request for detention and instead orders someone [...]

Today, Cook County judges are expected to stop assigning people awaiting trial to the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program. Over the next year, the Sheriff’s Office will phase out its [...]

Today is the 62nd anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court case that established the right to counsel in the United States and launched the existence of public defense as we know it [...]

After years of community pressure, Cook County will begin the process of sunsetting the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program this April. In December, the Cook County Board of Commissioners [...]

First, we will say the only thing worth saying at this moment: our heart breaks for the family of the nine-year-old boy shot earlier this month. We cannot imagine the suffering that this child [...]