Crime & Law
Cook County State’s Attorney Reverses Course, Diverts Nonviolent Gun Cases to Restorative Justice Courts
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has instructed her office to resume sending some people with gun possession charges to the county’s Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCC), which reroute young people with nonviolent charges from criminal courts to an alternative program. Upon completion, the charge is dismissed.
The move comes nearly a year after O’Neill Burke instructed her office not to divert gun possession cases to the RJCC. That gutted the RJCC caseload, 82.8% of which had been dedicated to adjudicating gun possession cases, according to the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, which advocates for equitable legal systems.
“We believe in RJCCs; we want them to be successful,” said Yvette Loizon, chief of policy and external affairs for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. “We recognized that by not putting gun cases in the RJCCs, we were restricting their workload significantly.”
Five gun possession cases have been identified for referral to the RJCC since diversion started back up on Jan. 5, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office.
Judge Patricia Spratt, who presides over the North Lawndale RJCC, said the program works. Participants have a recidivism rate of 13% within one year of enrollment of the RJCC, compared to 65% of similarly situated young people whose gun possession cases are adjudicated in traditional court proceedings, according to the Chief Judge’s Office.
“I was very pleased that (O’Neill Burke) decided to reverse her decision and send us first-time gun possession cases,” Spratt said.
There have been some changes in how the gun possession cases will proceed in the RJCC, according to Loizon.
The peace circle — which typically brings together the person charged, the person harmed and community members in a confidential conversation — will be replaced by a restorative practice conference. Participants will receive education like firearm safety and how to be a lawful gun owner. Loizon said the State’s Attorney’s Office believed the peace circle model was not appropriate for gun possession cases because there is not a victim.
The peace circle will remain for other types of cases the RJCC oversees, such as property-related charges.
There will also be a greater — but not mandatory — emphasis on helping participants obtain Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) cards. That’s in part due to a new law that allows participants to apply for a FOID card during the program, rather than wait until after completion.
Loizon said the office initially stopped referring gun cases to the RJCC because the office did “not have confidence at that time that the RJCC programming was providing a level of education” that addressed concerns like dangers of carrying, storing and modifying weapons.
The RJCC started in 2017 as an alternative take to justice: repairing harm, building empathy and restoring community relationships, as opposed to criminalization. Inside four courtrooms in Avondale, North Lawndale, Englewood and suburban Sauk Village, a person charged must accept responsibility for the harm they caused and participate in a peace circle or restorative practice conference to create a “Repair of Harm Agreement.” That agreement could include community service, job training, counseling, paying for damages or restitution with victims. The goal is to complete this process within six to 18 months.
It’s a model that ethan ucker, co-executive director of the firearm harm reduction group Stick Talk, has seen impact young peoples’ lives. ucker, who styles his name in all lowercase, said Stick Talk works in the RJCC, teaching gun education and topics like financial literacy, histories of gun ownership and emergency gunshot wound response. ucker said he’s seen young people become organizers at Stick Talk, go into trade school or higher education, and, overall, appreciate being in a space where they can be their “whole selves” and not be judged.
“We’re seeing participants generate kind of conceptions of safety that are more collective, where they’re thinking about how they can give back to community, what that means to keep us safe, keep our people safe,” ucker said. He noted the program demonstrates “the beauty and efficacy of these community-based alternatives to incarceration.”
Those eligible for referral to the RJCC must be 18-26 years old, have been charged with a nonviolent felony or misdemeanor and have a nonviolent criminal history.
The State’s Attorney’s Office said there have been no changes in eligibility.
According to the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, there were 443 participants in the RJCC from 2021-2023. Gun possession took up the bulk of the charges at 82.8%. Property charges made up 5.19%, and narcotics possession accounted for 4.06%.
Sharlyn Grace, a deputy public defender for policy with the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, said there should be broader eligibility access to the diversion program, such as those who carry guns without serial numbers or with certain attachments. Grace said while there’s a perception that certain types of firearms signal an intent to perpetuate some kind of violence, that’s not inherently true.
“It’s more of a reflection of the black market and what kinds of firearms are available to people who may not be able to legally own a gun,” Grace said.
Spratt of the North Lawndale RJCC said she’s in favor of expanding eligibility to cases with violent charges, which the RJCC currently excludes.
Overwhelmingly, Grace said she sees clients who have been arrested and charged with gun possession have a personal experience with victimization. They may have been threatened with a gun, had people close to them shot or were shot themselves.
“So they are choosing to carry a weapon, most often for self-protection, because they are not safe, their neighborhoods are not safe,” Grace said.
In the coming months, Loizon said the State’s Attorney’s Office will launch an additional diversion program, the Gun Accountability Program. That program is also for those with a first-time weapons possession charge, but it has expanded eligibility from the RJCC in age and geographic area.
Contact Blair Paddock: @blairpaddock.bsky.social | [email protected]
