October 23, 2015
Lanetta Haynes Turner is the 2nd Executive Director since the Council was formed by the President in 2011. Its mission is to work collaboratively with key stakeholders in the County’s criminal and juvenile justice system to reduce the population of the Cook County Jail and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, while ensuring systematic and community supports to reduce recidivism and increase public safety.
2015 Accomplishments:
- Jail population is down below 8,000 on average. Currently more than 45% of detainees are out on a no money bond or electronic monitoring [compared to 19% before the stakeholder intervention and collaboration].
- Worked with the IL General Assembly and other County Stakeholders to pass a law increasing the age of automatic transfer of juveniles to adult court from 15 to 17 with murder and rape as the exceptions.
- Continued to work on systemic reforms including sitting at the table of the IL State Supreme Court mandated regular stakeholder meetings to address pre-trial and diversion issues in the County’s Circuit Court.
- Secured a MacArthur Grant to implement and assess the pre-trial assessment tool selected by the Chief Judge and other issues pertinent to Bond Court.
- Will pilot a 24/7 Community Triage Serve to serve behavioral arrests or pre-arrests involving mental illness or drug addiction.
Issues
- While Grant Money has been used to reduce violence and improve recidivism, Commissioner Boykin wants more used to specifically address Gun Violence. The division of 2016 grants monies is: $1.9 m for violence prevention; $800,000 for recidivism; and $500,000 for restorative justice.
- Commissioners wanted the savings from the jail diversion and demolition programs applied to violence reduction and mental health. Only $500,000 of the savings of $3.2 million was applied to this purpose and was used to keep the 2016 JAC budget the same as 2015.
Submitted by Diane
Edmundson
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