"History has shown that when oversight is diminished, the risk of injustice increases — especially for those in communities that have long experienced the burdens of aggressive policing," Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell said.

Illinois lawmakers previously approved $50 million for after-school and summer programs, but that funding hasn’t reached schools yet. This delay leaves Chicago Public Schools and local organizations facing difficult budget cuts.

Illinois is one of seven states that do not have a statewide public defender body. Currently, 60% of Illinois counties have no office of public defense and instead hire private attorneys on a part-time basis.

Changes are coming to the SAFE-T Act, the new law that, among many other things, does away with cash bail starting in the new year. It's become a political flashpoint in the race for governor and took center stage at the last debate.

Chicago Police Department officers agreed to allow those arrested access to a phone within three hours in order to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Cook County Public Defender’s Office after mass arrests during the protests and unrest triggered by the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

The Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity Today Act — better known as the SAFE-T Act — was signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker in 2021. It has now become a campaign talking point. 

None of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s allies on the Chicago City Council met the 10 a.m. Monday deadline to ask City Clerk Anna Valencia to put it on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, meaning the measure will remain in limbo at least until May.

The centerpiece of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's efforts to crack down on crime after violence soared in 2021, the measure will remain in limbo for at least another month.

“This will put innocent people at risk,” Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell said. “Grandparents, other family members and innocent members of the community.”

A proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot to fight crime by going after the profits earned by Chicago’s gangs advanced Thursday over the objections of progressive alderpeople and civil rights groups. The 10-4 vote by the Chicago City Council’s Public Safety Committee tees up a showdown over the controversial measure at Wednesday’s full City Council. 

Deputy Mayor John O’Malley told members of the Chicago City Council’s Public Safety Committee that Lightfoot’s plan had been narrowed in response to criticism from members of the Chicago City Council, civil rights groups and police reform advocates. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will renew her push for a new city law designed to fight crime by suing gang leaders in civil court on Friday, prompting opponents of the revised proposal to form a coalition determined to convince the City Council to reject the measure they say would target Black and Latino Chicagoans and do nothing to stop violent crime.

“As the mayor of this city, I want to assure you that from day one in my time as mayor public safety has been, is, and will continue to be my highest priority,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday in a special speech to show she’s taking crime seriously. 

In spite of Lightfoot’s solemn pledge to immediately go after the “blood money” earned by gangs who terrorize Chicagoans, the mayor has not publicly mentioned her so-called “Victims’ Justice Ordinance” since that City Hall news conference on Sept. 14.

Intense criticism has not prompted Mayor Lori Lightfoot to rethink her plan to demand that the Chicago City Council give the city’s Law Department the authority to sue the leaders of Chicago’s gangs and “go after their blood money.”

More than 100 people were shot over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, one of the city’s deadliest in years. Some officials are blaming the courts for the recent violence. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. respond.