(The Center Square) – Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts co-executive director Naomi Johnson said she is concerned with Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke instructing prosecutors to object in all cases where electronic monitoring is proposed for pre-trial release of a criminal defendant despite the state having sought detention.
“I’m definitely concerned about this policy,” Johnson told The Center Square. “I think that each case deserves thorough, individualized review and that is the purpose, or one of the key purposes of the Pre-trial Fairness Act, and this sort of blanket policy put in place doesn’t allow for that. Requiring attorneys to object to every decision when detention was requested could irritate judges and make it difficult for a judge to distinguish an actual public safety issue from a routine objection.”
In implementing the new policy, Burke argues she no longer has confidence the Chief Cook County judge can effectively oversee the program, and as a result public safety could suffer.
But Johnson argues O’Neill’s actions raise more questions than they provide answers.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that there should be any concerns with this program,” she said. “In fact, it’s been shown to be a very well-managed program, a successfully managed pretrial electronic monitoring program. I think what this shows about Eileen O’Neill Burke’s approach to prosecution is that we’re seeing a punitive model of prosecution and a return to a win-at-all-cost model of prosecution, which is really deeply concerning because what I want to see as an advocate and what the Pretrial Fairness Act is meant to do is to give every single person an individualized review, a fair review.”
With the electronic monitoring program now overseen by the probation department, O’Neill Burke also contends that staffers are not adequately trained to monitor all the individuals now placed under their care, especially with Pretrial Fairness Act eliminating cash bail, which makes even more defendants eligible for the monitoring services.
Johnson counters by arguing overall violent crime is down across much of the city, and since Pretrial Fairness was implemented more than 80% of the individuals enrolled in the program are regularly showing up for court appearances.
“We are court watching, so we are going to be observing how these changes are carried out in person with people who are actually going through the system,” Johnson said. “We’re also going to be working with stakeholders to protect these pretrial decisions and make sure that they’re as fair as possible. We’ll definitely be working with our coalition partners to make sure that we advocate for the best and fairest outcomes for people going through the system.”
