Chief Judge Timothy
Evans came prepared to secure support from the Commissioners for restoring the
$3.4 million cut from his requested budget by the President in her Executive
Budget. This
money would be used to hire outside attorneys to advise homeowners during
mortgage foreclosure hearings. In the President’s remarks in
presenting the Executive Budget, the President had said this money was cut in
recognition that the number of new foreclosure proceedings had fallen 52% (the
Budget Director on Friday stated that the figure was now 67%). Money
for 8 County employees dedicated to the program was retained.
Chief Judge Evans
argued that the $3.4 million should be restored because (1) there are currently
32,000 cases pending in the system which need to be dealt with, and (2) while
new foreclosure cases have dropped considerably, there are still roughly 1,400
new cases being filed each month currently. The Chief Judge said
the outside attorneys were needed to advise the homeowners, which the County
employees, who are part of the judiciary, could not do. The
Chief Judge also had examples of homeowners who had been helped by the program
in each of the Commissioners’ districts. It was
clear that a number of the Commissioners were prepared to try to find all or at
least part of the $3.4 million, though it was not clear where that money would
come from.
Chief Judge Touts New Public Safety
Assessment Tool
Chief Judge Evans
was enthusiastic about the new Public Safety Assessment Tool being used in Bond
Court to assist judges in determining whether and how much of a bond was
necessary. The
concept behind this tool is that it will scientifically help predict whether an
accused person will show up for trial if released and whether the accused would
be likely to commit a crime if released. The
Chief Judge says that so far the tool is working well: the
monthly reports show that only 2% of those released have failed to show up and
only 2% have committed crimes while released. These
numbers compare favorably with Washington, D.C. where another tool has long been
in place and which has been considered a model program with 6% of those not
showing up and 6% committing crimes while released.
Commissioner Garcia said he had heard there were some issues with regard
to how the different judges were using the tool. Judge
Evans explained that each judge by state statute has to consider 36 parameters
when determining a bond, and that this was an additional tool. But
ultimately, it is the judge who has to decide. Further, this new assessment tool is only being fully implemented as of
January 1, and it is only then that he will be able to see how often judges
differ.
The Chief Judge also
explained that his office had worked with the other Public Safety stakeholders,
including the Illinois Crime Lab, to reduce the probable cause process from 21
to 14 days. One
improvement is that the State’s Attorney’s lawyers are now exchanging all
evidence with the Public Defender’s attorneys prior to the bond hearing, as
opposed to later after arraignment. Chief Judge Evans, like the other
Public Safety officials and departments, also cited the reduction in the average
daily jail population from over 10,000 to 8,000.
Chief Judge Adopting National Benchmarks
for Comparing Case Disposals
The Chief Judge has
been the one Cook County official who has refused to participate in the County’s
STAR Performance Management program, citing the need to separate the departments
under him from the Executive and Legislative branches. But in a response to
Commissioner Schneider’s question as to how Cook County courts are doing with
case backlogs, Chief Judge Evans said that he was now using the American Bar
Association and another national set of benchmarks to see how well the Cook
County courts were doing in the time being taken to dispose of a
case.
He said that for criminal cases, Cook County was
about 80% there, though he did not provide any more
specifics.
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center
(JTDC)
Leonard Dixon, the
new Superintendent of the JTDC, which is under the Chief Judge, was questioned by Commissioner
Gainer as to whether it was sustainable to manage a workforce at the JTDC which
had 193 FTEs (or about 1/3 of the total FTEs) out on leave. Mr.
Dixon said this was a nation-wide problem, but offered no specifics as to what
he might do to try to deal with this issue. Mr.
Dixon received kudos from a number of Commissioners from both parties as to what
they have seen thus far at the JTDC under his leadership.
Commissioner Gainer
pressed the Chief Judge to allow Mr. Dixon to meet with the Juvenile Justice Advisory
Board, which had been established by unanimous vote of the Cook County Board and
which is made up of volunteers with experience with youths. After
several minutes of back and forth, the Chief Judge agreed to
that.
-- Priscilla Mims,
League Observer
