September 11, 2025
News Archive
August 6, 2025
Earlier this week, the number of people in Cook County Jail exceeded 6,000 for the first time in more than three years.
July 1, 2025
CHICAGO – 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.
May 13, 2025
New community office will bring holistic legal defense and support services to Chicago’s South Side.
Today, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle joined Cook County Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell, Jr., community members, elected officials, and partner organizations to officially open the Freedom Defense Center of Roseland (FDCR)—a first-of-its-kind community-based law office dedicated to providing holistic legal defense and wraparound services for residents of the South Side.
April 4, 2025
February 24, 2024
On January 25, 2024, the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender notified the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Iris Y. Martinez, and her staff that her Office had publicly exposed confidential juvenile records via their recently launched criminal case records search function on their website.
January 18, 2024
Published by the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender on December 5, 2023.
The following op-ed was published in the Chicago Tribune on October 11, 2023.