The Civic Federation hosted a series of criminal justice reform panel discussions as part of the annual conference of the Governmental Research Association in July. Here we highlight the key takeaways from discussions on two topics currently at the forefront of criminal justice reform across the nation: bail reform and police budgeting reform. Bail Reform Efforts Across the U.S. This panel discussion explored the state of pretrial reform efforts in various parts of the country—with a…
The Civic Federation is pleased to partner with the Governmental Research Association to co-host a virtual conference July 19-20, 2021. Register here via Eventbrite. To watch a video about the Gatherly platform the conference will use, click here. Please note: Gatherly must be accessed from a laptop or desktop computer (not a smartphone). The recommended browser for Gatherly is Google Chrome. Please click here for instructions on how to download Chrome. AGENDA (all times Central…
During a series of State appropriations hearings held by the Illinois General Assembly in both the House and Senate this spring, State agency leaders discussed their budget requests included in Governor Pritzker’s proposed FY2022 State Budget. In these discussions…
Cook County has accounted for all $429 million in Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) funding the County received through the federal CARES Act in 2020, according to a report presented by Cook County finance officials to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in January. The County received relief funds from the U.S. Treasury in April 2020 that could be used to cover eligible COVID-19-related expenses, which had to be spent by the end of the year in order to keep the full funding amount. Cook County…
Recently, Cook County, the State of Illinois and other jurisdictions across the U.S. have begun to implement policy changes to reduce reliance on monetary bail and release more individuals while awaiting trial. These changes come amid a national push to make the criminal justice system more fair and reduce the number of criminal defendants held in jail pretrial based on their inability to pay bail. The federal system in Washington, D.C. eliminated cash bail in the 1990s. In the move away from a…
UPDATE: On February 22, 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed House Bill 3653 Senate Amendment 2 into law as Public Act 101-0652 – dubbed the SAFE-T Act (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity – Today). In December 2022, a series of amendments to the SAFE-T Act were passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed by the Governor into Public Act 102-1104. For a summary of the amendments to the SAFE-T Act, see the Civic Federation’s summary here. On January 13, 2021 in the final…
With the City of Chicago facing a $1.2 billion budget deficit heading into the next fiscal year and calls from community advocates for more funding for violence prevention and social services, the current situation begs the question of whether cuts can be made in the Police Department budget, and if so, where? The Chicago Police Department budget adopted for the current 2020 fiscal year totals $1.76 billion. The majority, $1.65 billion, is accounted for in the Corporate Fund, which is the City’…
In the wake of protests over the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police officers, police accountability and reform has risen to the forefront in government discussions, and residents in many cities have called for defunding the police. The defund-the-police movement has called into question the best use of budget resources and whether some issues often handled by police would be better served through community services. The Minneapolis City Council passed a…
Changes could be coming to Cook County’s pretrial electronic monitoring program as the Cook County President’s Office looks to hire a consultant to examine best practices and potential alternatives to the way the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program is currently run. While the number of people detained in the Cook County Jail has decreased significantly since pretrial reform efforts in Cook County began in 2013,[1] the number of people ordered to Sheriff’s electronic monitoring (EM) as a…
This blog post is an update to the Civic Federation’s April 9, 2020 blog post: How COVID-19 is Impacting Chicago’s Criminal Justice System and How Public Safety Agencies are Responding. Cook County Jail The Cook County Jail population on May 15 was 4,061. Another 3,186 defendants were under community supervision on electronic monitoring. These numbers represent a 29% decrease in the number of detainees in jail and a 31% increase in the number of people on electronic monitoring compared to March…
