Cook County Departmental Budget Hearings Chief Judge

Cook County Board Finance Committee Departmental Budget Hearings
November 6

CHIEF JUDGE -  TIM EVANS

Proposed 2021 Budget: $267,492,961                Proposed 2021 FTEs - 2783
2020 Budget:  $277,958,472                              2020 FTEs - 3029
Difference:  ($10,465,510)  decrease                  Difference - decrease 246 

Highlights of Presentation and Questions:

• Two more restorative justice courts “opened” but not yet being used—Englewood and      Avondale.  For 18-26 year olds to get “second chance” and  to stay out of Criminal Justice (CJ) System.  Involves the making the victim whole, dismissal of the case if completed.  12 new “peacekeepers have been hired and 12 more to be hired soon.  Difficult to set up more of these courts as they need to be in “gang-neutral territory” and the costs lower.  There will be an increase of judges available for these courts, but often prosecutors, defense attorneys don’t show up
• Length of stay (in jail) question (carry over from Dart budget hearing)  There were 9421 pending cases active since August.  85% (7945) of these were completed within 2 years, another 9% within 3 years.  About 2-3% are very serious cases involving multiple murders, etc. and after 9 years they have not been completed.  Some are on appeal, others require a lot of background investigation for trial (DNA, witness location, etc.), some awaiting sentencing.  Evans stated that this long length of stay is “blown out of proportion.”  Comm. Miller requested a public hearing on Length of Stay with all CJ departments.
• Some delays in court proceedings  are occurring due to the Clerk of the Court’s office having difficulty getting employees to work during COVID, so judges staff did that work.  This is mostly a problem at the suburban sites and the Daley Center.  He suggests sharing staff with the Clerk of the Court in the future.
• Another glitch in the court system is that Odyssey Technology isn't working as it should to track cases.  Mostly used in criminal cases; Evans suggests NOT using in civil cases.
• In the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC)  (175 juveniles currently) there has been a cut back on some programs. For other at risk juveniles, there are other programs which appear not to be currently going on, or to a lesser extent—(after school gym, homework help, mentors, dinner, ride home).  Low COVID rate at JTDC (less than 3%), as they are quarantined on arrival pending testing.
• Reduction of 100 employees from Electronic Monitoring, probation, etc.  Use of GPS saves money and staffing needs in the long run.
• An evictions system will be in place when the moratorium on evictions is over.
• Miller asked for data on mental health programs and other programs that are under the Chief Judge or others.
• $6.3 million in budget for overtime, but Evans expects this to be reduced once more staff is hired.  This is mostly in JTDC and mostly due to FMLA leave.
• A concern by Comm. Johnson on the slow pace of expungement cases.  Evans said the Clerk’ of the Court's office isn't sending petitions to the judge (Leroy Martin) for months—even in uncontested expungements.  For contested expungements, there is a problem finding lawyers who would represent for free, having asst. states attorneys there, and only a small number of clerks trained to do the processing.
• According to Ritzki (budget) there is a budget in Economic Development office to deal with CARES money and new programs in the criminal justice system—unclear what those are.
• Bond court is “back to normal” (held within 24 hours of arrest), but that means all hearings are done on Zoom.  They are live-streamed (audio only) on You-tube.

Evans indicated he plans to bring forth several amendments to his budget to restore probation officers and increase programs.  Comm. Daley reminded all that this is an “extremely tight budget” and all amendments need to be budget neutral.

​Observer - Karin Hribar