State’s Attorney Touts Initiatives; Wants More Money for Additional Positions

2016 Cook County Proposed Budget:  State’s Attorney, October 30, 2015

  

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez spoke about new initiatives in her office and told the Commissioners that her revised budget request is seeking an additional $1.5 million.  This money would be used to retain 13 current positions (7 Assistant State’s Attorneys and 6 administrative staff), add 10 new positions to staff a new Community Justice Center in Humboldt Park, and retain 6 positions in the Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Division that was previously funded by a federal grant.  No details were provided during the meeting in support of these positions; this information may be being provided separately outside of the public view.  Note that no employees are being laid off; people are either being reassigned or the positions are unfilled. 

The State’s Attorney said that gang and gun crimes are the top priority.  She is working to increase penalties for repeat gun offenders.  Under a new policy in her office, prosecutors are taking gun cases directly to indictment rather than first to a preliminary hearing, which speeds up the case.  In response to a question, the State’s Attorney said that last year 84% of jury cases involving gun violence ended in a guilty verdict.  This year, the number is down to 69%.  She said that jurors are less likely to find the testimony of police in these cases sufficient; jurors want additional evidence, such as DNA evidence, or as the State’s Attorney put it, the “CSI effect.”  In response, the Chicago Police Department is now assigning a detective to each case to make sure additional evidence is followed up on.  While she does not have numbers on the number of cases involving guns, she did say that out of 191,000 active cases, 65,500 are misdemeanors and 125,500 are felonies. 

Under the new drug prosecution policy, her office is not prosecuting misdemeanor violations in most instances, so seeing 50% reduction in total misdemeanor cannabis cases from last year.  The office is just implementing a drug deferred prosecution for low level felony possession of controlled substances or possession of cannabis at central bond court.  Under this program, those arrested are linked with social services in lieu of normal prosecution.   Upon successful compliance with the court’s recommendations, those in this program will have their cases dismissed.  The State’s Attorney thinks that this will result in thousands of cases diverted each year.

The State’s Attorney defended the drug school program (responding to the President’s remarks that the program is not working).  Since its inception, there have been 50,000 dismissals of mostly felony drug charges and has been seen to reduce the likelihood of participants re-entering the criminal justice system on similar charges.  Moreover, the State’s Attorney said that almost every diversion program in her office has been either independently evaluated in the last 2 years or is undergoing such evaluation.

Commissioner Fritchey asked why the State’s Attorney supported state legislation against the automatic transfer of juveniles to adult courts, but the office is still seeking such transfers.  The State’s Attorney said she supported the end of automatic transfer for a number of crimes, but not murder or rape.  Commissioner Fritchey also asked for information on those who have take-home privileges for county cars and the amount spent on outside counsel, which the State’s Attorney said would be provided.

-- Priscilla Mims, League Observer

Hearing on Opiate Addiction and Usage, Legislative Committee of the Cook County Board, April 29, 2015

The Legislative Committee held hearings on Opiate Addiction and Usage on April 29, 2015 at 2:25 pm.    A complete video of the testimony by various experts may be viewed below.

http://cook-county.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=1134

Commissioners Gorman and Suffredin called the hearings to try to understand opiate addiction to be able to address cost and treatment issues for the Criminal Justice System and HHS in Cook County.

Commissioners Butler, Boykin, Sims, and Garcia were also present, although nearly everyone had left by the end of the meeting almost 2 hours later. 

The hearings called many experts in Cook County and beyond to help explain the patterns and origins of opiate addiction.  Drug poisoning has overtaken motor vehicle accidents for deaths in Illinois and around the nation.

Usage is well distributed all over suburban Cook County, according to Dr. Mason, a specialist in treatment for non-Chicago Cook County area hospitals.

Opiate addicts typically start using and abusing OTC (over the counter) opioids like Vicodin, Tylenol 3, Oxycontin.  When they can no longer justify a medical excuse for obtaining OTC “legal” opioids, they switch to heroin.

Dr. Timothy Condon works with TASC as the Chief Science Officer, and is at the National Institute of Drug Abuse:  Drug abuse is a disease which is treatable.  It is a brain disease.  Death rates from opiates in the Northeast and Midwest are six times higher than in 2006-2007.  Nationally abuse is concentrated in non-Hispanic Whites and Black users.  We now have tools to deal with opiate addiction, which we did not in the past.  It doesn’t matter what is in the syringe, whether it is heroin or an opiate prescription drug, the user is still an addict, and has to be treated.

Narcan or Naloxone is a powerful “new” drug that can revive people who ordinarily would have died from an opiate overdose, but Narcan does not treat the addiction.

The drug of choice for treating opiate addiction is Naltrexone.  Unlike the imperfect Methadone “treatment” that likewise created dependency, Naltrexone is an addiction agonist so it blocks the euphoria that the opiate creates in the brain.  Vivitrol is the time-release version of Naltrexone.

Dr. Eka Jones is with the Sheriff’s office inside the Women’s Justice program for mental health and drug treatment within Cook County Jail.  More than 50% of her enrollees cited heroin as their drug of choice.  Drug treatment has to be tailored to meet individual needs.

Dr. Minella, the Head of Cermak Mental Health Clinic at the Cook County Jail, has been there since 1991.  Everyone gets screened for physical and mental issues during Cook County jail intake, and about 80% have substance histories.  12% actively use heroin of the intake population at the jail.  Of the 500 people in the Detox unit every month, about 80% are heroin users, committing crimes to get heroin.  The inmates are very vulnerable when in detox and the issue is that they don’t stay long enough to get off the substance.  25% leave within 2 days, and 50% leave within 12 days.  6 weeks is considered the proper amount of time to get someone off of opiate addiction.

Judge Charles Byrne from 26^th Street courthouse has the Drug Treatment Court.  Addicts have to be dealt with differently from young people who are caught for the first time.  80% of addicts are heroin “frequent fliers” where they have been in and out of jail and the penitentiary between 5 and fifteen times.  You have to try to get them clean.  Every $1 spent in treatment saves $2 later.  They are typically using $200 to $300 in heroin each day.  They need to be supervised in a sober environment.  If they complete the treatment program, 85% of them stay out of the criminal justice system for at least one year.  74% non-recitivism after three years.  They need jobs as well so they can be able to make money.  Everyone who graduates from the program gets their case dismissed.  Many groups now, including the CTA, have a felon-hiring program.  The drug treatment program gets funded from Judge Evans’ budget.

Dr. Aix, a Stroger Emergency Room doctor and head of Toxicology at Stroger, says we are in the middle of an opioid epidemic.  It began to take off in 2000 when there was over-prescription of opioid OTC drugs.  The opiate prescription drugs lure teens into experimentation.

At Stroger ER there are 5000 patients admitted for drug overdoses in a year, with 20% of them repeat overdosers.

There needs to be an increase in Detox and addiction facilities. 

There are two pilot programs being tested by the State of Illinois in Winnebago County and Madison County.  Both use Vivitrol for long term easing off of opiates, and both use community treatment and outreach to maintain the link to support once the person has left jail.  They use Medicaid to treat people in jail.

Another speaker, Joel Johnson, at HRDI, Human Resources Development Institute, said it was very hard to get Medicaid to pay for Vivitrol treatment, even though it has proven successful.

Chief Scofield, Fire Chief in Orland Park, testified that Orland Park went from 3 to 70 overdoses in the last ten years.  The families are embarrassed and hide their kids and the addiction from the public.

Chief Roberts, head of the Cook County Forest Preserve police, lost his son to a heroin overdose in 2009.  There were 7000 deaths in the nation in 2007, 43,000 in 2014.  He is happy to see the Cook County Board doing something proactive.

Dr. Dan Lustig of the Haymarket Center said that heroin addicts need 6 or 7 treatments of Vivitrol before “freedom from opiates” can take hold.

Sally Thorin, Executive Director of Gateway Foundations, says there are three key parts of treatment.  Proper diagnosis, therapeutic mindfulness, and Vivitrol treatment.

Respectfully submitted by Amy Little

Cook County Committees & Board of Commissioners Meeting Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The board meeting was called to order at noon as committee meetings took longer than scheduled.   Three Committee items of note:

Commissioner Boykin introduced an Ordinance [15-1565] banning the use of Choke Holds by Law Enforcement within the County.  Some commissioners felt the ordinance was a duplication of state law being considered and could lead to a increase in law suits filed.  The Ordinance passed in the Criminal Justice Committee and later by the full board.

Legislative & Intergovernmental Relations Committee:  Amy Patton Campanelli was unanimously approved in Committee and then at the full board meeting to be the next Cook County Public Defender serving a 6 year term, effective April 1, 2015.

Ms. Campanelli spoke about how delighted she was to be appointed the county’s second female Public Defender since the department was established in 1930, in the second largest Public Defender’s office in the country. Ms. Campanelli listed her five goals, with reasonable bond her top priority. The other four goals are to end the practice of prosecuting children in adult court, proactive community outreach, expand the special courts, such as mental and drug courts, and to offer consistent training programs to public defenders.

Finance Committee:  Commissioner Gainer expressed serious skepticism about the Hospital Systems efforts to take in-house its collection efforts and asked for calls to be made to other Chicago hospitals to see if any have in-house collection operations and their experience.

Board Meeting: At 12:10pm, Commissioner Daley offered the consent calendar for approval. Calendar discussion continued until 12:25 and included a tribute to Jan Ortwell, former President of the League of Women Voters of Illinois and Director of the IL Dept. of Aging.

Resolution 15-2499. Lengthy discussion occurred regarding this resolution urging the General Assembly to pass legislation to reform percentage based bail bond fees. The issue is whether the current 10% of posted bail bond, which is a state statute, should be changed to cap the bond fee at $100 which is closer to the cost of processing.  Several commissioners wondered whether requesting other levels of government to take action is worthwhile. Others felt that passing resolutions is a way to ask other government levels to listen to the County’s concerns particularly when the issue in question primarily affects Cook County.  The resolution passed.

Resolution 15-2421. Commissioner Schneider introduced with sponsorship from Arroyo, Fritchey, Gorman, Goslin, Moore and Silvestri, which stated: “The members of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County ….shall oppose a property tax increase and look for other methods to fill the budget shortfalls in the 2016 CC fiscal budget.”  Daley moved that the resolution was out of order and President Preckwinkle agreed.  A roll call vote was called which resulted in the motion being defeated by a comfortable margin.  Schneider stated that he would contact the States Attorney for validation of the motion and ruling.

Resolution #15-2463 offered by Commissioner Tobolski and sponsored by all attending commissioners to engage in outreach for Veteran-owned businesses was moved to the Veteran’s Committee.

Resolution # 150961. The Bureaus of Technology, Finance, and Assessor’s office asked for a $1,633,594 increase and a contract extension through 2019 with Acxiom Corporation in order to run parallel systems while implementing the new platforms. Several commissioners expressed frustration at the continued request for money with no concrete assurances that the problems are resolved and a solid plan and timetable are in place. The new Chief Procurement Officer stated that she is confident this money is needed and that over the next two years more platforms will be up and running with the entire project completed by 2019. The Contract extension passed. 

15-2372. The Assessor’s Office proposed a contract amendment to add $600,000 for [tax] fraud  collection research. Sixty percent of the data gained via this contractor have been good hits. Commissioner Gainer expressed privacy concerns with all the data generated. It was stated that the data was deleted shortly after the search was completed.

Resolution #152543 opposing right to work zones was referred to the Legislative Committee.

Commissioner Gainer asked commissioners to support colleges in reporting sexual abuse attacks on campus. 

A note: 16 commissioners were in attendance at the start of the board meeting and 13 were in attendance at conclusion.  We observers were very pleased to see Commissioner Suffredin back from his medical absence.

Submitted by:  Laura Davis & Diane Edmundson

Meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, December 17, 2014

The meeting was rescheduled to the afternoon to allow Commissioners to attend the memorial service for Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. Committee meetings began at 1:00 p.m. and included the Rules, Government & Legislation, Finance, Zoning & Building, and Roads and Bridges.  Of particular interest:

• Dr. Erica E. Marsh’s appointment to the Health and Hospital Systems independent board was enthusiastically received and approved in Committee and by the full Board.
• An approved appointee to the Weller Creek Drainage District, Thomas Munz, is an advocate for rethinking if this District is still needed. Commissioner Suffredin agreed and expanded  the concept to include all small drainage and sanitary districts. This is important because Illinois has over 8,000 taxing bodies, many of them very small and with little oversight.
• There was public testimony and lengthy discussion about a residential zoning variance in unincorporated Northfield. It is mentioned here because there is increasing effort on the part of the County to encourage annexation or consolidation  with established municipalities.  There is a new study out by the CivicFederation on this topic which would result in both cost and time savings for the County [but not for the unincorporated areas]

The Board of Commissioners meeting began at 2:30 p.m. presided by President, Pro Tem, Richard Steele. Absent from the meeting were President, Tony Preckwinkle and Commissioners Gorman and Tobolski. Newly elected Commissioners Luis Arroyo, Jr (8^th District) and Richard Boykin (1^st District) were welcomed.   

Public testimony included George Blakemoor, Karen Hobbs of the Natural Resources Defense Fund, and Sue Warwick of NAMI in support of a Resolution to be introduced by Commissioner Boykin to increase mental health funding. The Consent Calendar was approved in total, but several individual resolutions were pulled for reading into the minutes, comments, and picture taking. This Observer was struck by how much time was allocated to these resolutions considering the hour.

Agenda Item 15-0659: The Annual  Board Meeting Calendar was approved as presented with Commissioner Schneider stating that he would approve but will continue to advocate for increasing the number of meetings. The League agrees.

15-0708:  Boykin introduced and all in attendance signed on to urging the Governor and State Legislature to support additional mental health funding in Illinois pursuant to the successful Cook County Ballot Referendum. Resolution Approved.

15-0709:  Boykin introduced a Predatory Lending Resolution and asked the Board to waive the 24- hour notice to allow for acceptance of an amendment to change the language in several sections to be inclusive of all races and ethnicities affected by predatory lending. Fritchey recommended that it be sent to Committee, but Boykin asked leave to table the resolution until the end of the meeting so that he could meet with Commissioners and work out the language changes.  Leave was granted and the resolution was re-introduced at the end of the Board Meeting and approved by those commissioners remaining in the room. Banks will now be barred from doing business with the County if they are found guilty and/or settle a predatory lending lawsuit or an investigation.

15-0703, Introduced by Fritchey, this Zero-Based Budgeting Ordinance was referred to the Finance Committee without discussion.  [The League of Women Voters of Cook County will monitor.]

15-0712, Introduced by Fritchey, this Sweat-Shop Free Procurement Ordinance referred to the Finance Committee without discussion.

15-0675, introduced by Suffredin, this Presidential Appointments to Cook County Departments or Agencies Ordinance appears to reduce the number of Presidential appointees requiring Board approval. Referred to the Legislation Committee without discussion.

15-0012, Extends and increases contract with vendor for licenses, maintenance, hosting and support of equipment manager, and the on-line training website for election judges.  Approved.

15-0013, Extends and increases Circuit Court contract with Presence Behavioral Health for mental health counseling and aftercare referral services.  Approved.

15-0014, Extends and increases Circuit Court Contract with TASC for “client care management services” while a new RPF is completed. Approved.

15-006, Extends and increases s State’s Attorney contract with TASC for “first time offender drug diversion programs”.  Approved.

15-0587 Renewal of grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority to the State’s Attorney’s Office to provide the salaries and fringe benefits for staff at the West Side Community Justice Center and the Central Community Justice Center.

There is a new section on the Agenda "Committee Items Requiring Board Action" which lists what actions were taken in the various committee meetings so that Commissioners and the public have the information before them when voting to accept, reject, or defer actions taken by the Committee.  [CC League of Women Voters is pleased that the Board heard its suggestions and responded].

Three New Items were added to Agenda during the Board Meeting:

1)     Resolution introduced by Commissioner Boykin urging President Obama to establish a national commission to examine the criminal justice system and the impact of race.  The rule requiring Committee review was suspended by a voice vote and the resolution was approved by the 7 or 8 commissioners left in attendance.

2)     Resolution introduced by President Preckwinkle urging the Illinois General Assembly to convene and pass House Bill 4733, raising the minimum wage from $8.25 per hour to $10.00 per hour state-wide beginning on January 1, 2015.  This bill was passed in the Senate on Dec. 3, 2014.  Approved.

3)     Resolution #150789 introduced by Suffredin and immediately referred to the Environmental Control Committee is a statement in support of efforts to strengthen and restore certain provisions of the U.S. Clean Water Act.  When the Committee next meets, it will consider two opposing resolutions–the 1^st introduced by Murphy is against the changes; the 2^nd introduced by Suffredin is in support of the changes. The State and County LWVs are in support of the changes and have been lobbying the commissioners.

Submitted by Diane Edmundson