Published by the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender on December 5, 2023.
2023 News Archive
The following op-ed was published in the Chicago Tribune on October 11, 2023.
CHICAGO, Sept. 18, 2023 - Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr., joined advocates, legislators, criminal legal system stakeholders and impacted people at a news conference on Monday morning marking the end of money bond in Illinois and the beginning of a more just pretrial system.
While celebrating a historic moment for a more equitable criminal legal system, Mitchell also pledged vigilance in making sure the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) is properly implemented.
CHICAGO, Sept. 14, 2023 -- 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.
Block Club Chicago reporter Maxwell Evans wrote about our work to take take traditional criminal legal defense out of the courthouse and into the community to provide more collaborative representation and services. We will be launching our first community defense center, the Freedom Defense Center of Roseland, in 2024.
Click on the headline below to read the Block Club story:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Fiona Ortiz, Deputy of Communications
312-505-7476
Cook County Public Defender's Office thrilled that SB424 and SB1886 are signed into law
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Fiona Ortiz, Deputy of Communications
fiona.ortiz@cookcountyil.gov
312-505-7476
Real solutions to violence require addressing root causes, including poverty, addiction and community health.
Thank you notes adorn the walls of Maria Gordils’ office at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office. Over the years, clients and their families have written to Maria to express gratitude for her helping them “get their life back.”
Maria is a Mitigation Specialist on a team that this office has recently expanded. Working along with defense attorneys she has helped countless people receive lower sentences than they originally faced, or a life sentence rather than death, back when Illinois still had capital punishment.
Children who are in juvenile jail because DCFS can’t find them a home are being harmed
Every day, attorneys from the Cook County public defender’s office represent children who are ordered released from the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center but are stuck there because the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has failed to find them a home.