Assistant Public Defender Sam Goldberg spoke in support of a proposed change to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 307 that would allow interlocutory appeals of a trial court’s decision to transfer a child’s case to an adult criminal court.
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The Law Office of the County Public Defender is celebrating the passage of five new bills by the Illinois General Assembly during the 2025 spring session.
Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr., joined advocates, legislators, criminal legal system stakeholders and impacted people at a news conference to mark the end of money bond in Illinois and the beginning of a more just pretrial system.
On Sept. 18, the Pretrial Fairness Act will take full effect in Illinois, eliminating the use of money bond and redesigning pretrial processes to increase transparency in release and detention decisions. Cook County stands ready to implement all aspects of the Act, including the new initial appearance and detention hearing processes.
The Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender is thrilled that today, Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB424 and SB1886 into law, expanding rights and opportunities for people accused of gun possession and people on probation, respectively. Our office is proud of the leadership role we played in developing and passing these bills alongside our partner organizations and the sponsoring legislators.
Today, Illinois lawmakers passed technical amendments to the state’s SAFE-T Act, a historic reform that takes the next step in creating a more fair and equitable criminal legal system. The SAFE-T Act, which includes the Pretrial Fairness Act, puts our state in the national vanguard on one of the most important issues of our day – ending wealth-based pretrial jailing that weakens communities and is fundamentally unfair. On Jan. 1, 2023, Illinois will become the...
The Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) is the part of the larger SAFE-T Act that was signed into law in February 2021. The law makes reforms to Illinois' criminal justice system centered on increasing Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity.