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<\/source><\/picture>\nDavon Clark<\/p>\n
Curtis Ferdinand (far left) and Mark Clements of the Chicago Torture Justice Center during Injustice Watch\u2019s event on inequities in the Cook County court system Aug 31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
About 100 people from more than 50 community organizations gathered with public officials and legal experts at Roosevelt University last month to discuss issues of equity and access in the Cook County court system.<\/p>\n
The event, put on by Injustice Watch in partnership with the Better Government Association and DataMade, was part of The Circuit<\/a>, our collaborative journalism project investigating two decades of Cook County court data. The goal was to bring together journalists, practitioners, and people who have been impacted by the courts to surface some of the systemic problems in the court system and discuss possible solutions.<\/p>\n Asked to describe their community\u2019s relationship with the court system in five words or less, attendees wrote words that included \u201cfraught,\u201d \u201copaque,\u201d and \u201ccomplicated\u201d on white note cards. Other people highlighted their roles fighting against inequities in the system, with phrases that included \u201cdefender from an unjust system\u201d and \u201csupporting the end of cash bail.\u201d<\/p>\n Two panels of journalists, experts, and legal practitioners discussed how data-driven journalism can shine a light on problems in the court system and help lead to solutions.<\/p>\n Here are some of the takeaways from the evening:<\/p>\n Davon Clark<\/p>\n Brown University sociology professor Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve talks about court watching as part of research for her book about the Cook County court system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 1. Many criminal courtrooms are alienating or dehumanizing spaces for everyday people. <\/b>Brown University sociology professor Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve mentioned a 2016 incident<\/a> in which a woman experiencing a mental health crisis arrived for her first court appearance dressed only in a garbage bag<\/a> after being arrested without clothes. She pointed to this as an instance of the dehumanization of defendants appearing in court by courtroom personnel, police, sheriffs, and presiding judges. \u201cMy hope is that the people reporting on (the court system) don\u2019t normalize it,\u201d Gonzalez Van Cleve said. \u201cI would like to see some of the journalists that cover this to step back and say, \u2018Did this look normal to me when I started reporting, and who convinced me that this was how it was supposed to be?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Even when charges are ultimately dropped, arrests can carry heavy collateral consequences. <\/b>The Better Government Association published an investigation using The Circuit data<\/a> showing that police have arrested tens of thousands of people on felony drug-possession charges that they knew were never going to stick. \u201cWhat we found in our story was that more than half of these cases were getting dismissed,\u201d said Jared Rutecki, investigative reporter and data coordinator for the BGA. \u201cBut not before people were spending time in jail, before people were losing jobs, before people were being really deeply affected by these matters.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Media coverage of the court system has often relied on anecdotes and sensationalism.<\/b> Cook County State\u2019s Attorney Kim Foxx noted that legislators have often relied on anecdotes and sensational news stories about crime when setting criminal justice policy. \u201cHistorically, the criminal justice system has been driven by the anecdote,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is largely the one story that drives people to go down to Springfield and change the law to solve for the one thing that happened that scared the bejesus out of people.\u201d Foxx encouraged more news organizations to use data to tell fact-based stories about crime and the courts.<\/p>\n 1. Data collection is a powerful tool for institutional change \u2014 but only if it is acted upon.<\/b> Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. also urged practitioners within the system and activists outside it to use data as a tool for change. But he cautioned that data alone isn\u2019t always enough. \u201cData provides the opportunity to advocate better, to tell better stories, to make better decisions,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cBut let\u2019s also be clear that data can be overrated. It doesn\u2019t drive change itself; it must be paired with both power and will.\u201d<\/p>\n Davon Clark<\/p>\n Cook County State\u2019s Attorney Kim Foxx (second from left) and Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. (second from right) speak on a panel about data and the Cook County court system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 2. Watchdogs play a critical role in improving access to justice.<\/b> \u201cCrook County,\u201d Gonzalez Van Cleve\u2019s award-winning study of the Cook County criminal courts<\/a>, used hundreds of trained court watchers to lay bare the inequities and systemic injustices that people of color face in the criminal legal system. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to break culture; culture sometimes doesn\u2019t die,\u201d Gonzalez Van Cleve said. \u201cAnd so what I find is sometimes shaming it, exposing it to the light, if you will, is sometimes the best way to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Convening people involved in the legal system in different ways can lead to more understanding.<\/b> Curtis Ferdinand, a peer reentry specialist learning fellow at the Chicago Torture Justice Center<\/a> who attended the event, said he appreciated the opportunity to be heard as someone who has been directly impacted by the court system. But Ferdinand said he also gained a greater appreciation for the attorneys and the public officials, such as Foxx and Mitchell, especially when they talked about their support of the SAFE-T Act, the bill passed last year that will end money bond in Illinois<\/a>. \u201cWhile we\u2019re going through the system, we have this perception that (lawyers) aren\u2019t as invested as we would like them to be,\u201d Ferdinand said. \u201cI do see that there was a greater level of care than we take into consideration about how they do their job and what issues they care about, what issues they\u2019re fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nInvestigations that expose, influence and inform. Emailed directly to you.<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
On the problems in the court system<\/b><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/picture>\nOn potential solutions<\/b><\/h3>\n
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