A judge in Kankakee County issued an opinion that part of the SAFE-T Act is unconstitutional. The judge’s ruling impacts the Pretrial Fairness Act, the portion of the SAFE-T Act that reforms pretrial release conditions and ends money bond. All other measures of the SAFE-T Act remain intact, and we anticipate the judge’s ruling will be reviewed by the Illinois Supreme Court.
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The Cook County Public Defender's Office is relieved that the Illinois Supreme Court will have the opportunity to clarify the constitutionality of the Pretrial Fairness Act soon. In the meantime, we expect the law to go into effect on January 1, 2023 in Cook County.
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 Cook County Public Defender’s Office announced the swearing in of 25 new attorneys who are now Assistant Public Defenders in our office. This group of attorneys joins our professional family and our mission to protect the fundamental rights, liberties and dignity of each person whose case has been entrusted to us by providing the finest legal representation.
The Office of the Cook County Public Defender was represented at the MacArthur Foundation biannual Safety and Justice Challenge Network meeting by Public Defender Sharone Mitchell, Director of Community Engagement Alexandria Santistevan and Director of Legislative and External Affairs Sav Felix.
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.
The Cook County Public Defender’s Arrest Hotline – 844-817-4448 – operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, taking calls and providing vital legal representation for people being detained by law enforcement anywhere in Chicago and Cook County.
Do you need help getting back your suspended or revoked driver's license? The Cook County Public Defender's Office is proud to co-host the seventh installment of the Driver's License Reinstatement Expo. The expo is September 17 at Malcolm X College and volunteer attorneys from our office will participate.
Assistant Public Defenders Margaret Armalas and Megan Tomlinson discuss the shocking pattern of racist enforcement of gun possession laws in Chicago in an op-ed published in the Chicago Tribune.
In this podcast, Public Defender Mitchell speaks about racially targeted enforcement of gun possession statutes. In Cook County, racially disproportionate enforcement of gun rules sends thousands of Black people to prison because they do not have or cannot get the required licenses, not because they've been accused of harming someone.