Cook County State's Attorney Requests Additional Funds to Hire 16 Attorneys

Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee Departmental Budget Hearings
October 24, 2018

State’s Attorney

Commissioners Absent: Butler, Fritchey, Goslin, Gainer and Garcia.

State's Attorney (SA) Kim Fox stated that: 

• Her department inherited over $2 million debt and has paid down 1/2 of that debt so far.  
• Her strong focus is on data and evidence, integrity and transparency. 
• The Cook County prosecutor office is second in the country, after LA. 
• They have a Conviction Integrity Unit and referenced 50 people wrongly convicted.  She mentioned the importance of rebuilding trust. 
• They have an 85% conviction rate in gun cases (up from 50%).  Her focus is on violent crime. Misdemeanor cases are being looked at as there is a high number.
• Best practice is 400 cases per Assistant State's Attorney (ASA)   Cook County ASA’s have about 3000 cases. Further, about 50% end in dismissal. A lot has to do with the need for victims to show up in court.  There is no mechanism to screen out dismissal cases.  
• About 250,000 cases come from suburbs.  

Com. Daley and Silvestri asked about Electronic Monitoring (EM). SA Fox said that she has no position regarding consolidating or what the difference is between EM from the Judges or Sheriffs departments. 

There was a question regarding the money spent on outside counsel, which is significantly different between inside or outside counsel. SA Fox asked for money to hire 16 attorneys (the number that was lost previously). This would allow her to decrease outside counsel and save money. Request is for $945,000 up to $1.3 million for FTE’s.

SA Fox discussed a felony review guidebook for Chicago Police Department with the goal to have consistency with charging. 

Suffredin asked about the revenue generated from civil diversion: Narcotic forfeiture fund (modeled after New York) and the Records automation fund where money comes from the state.  More money is not being generated because they don’t have enough resources.

SA Fox discussed community justice centers for the south and west sides. Idea is to invest resource in prosecutorial engagement. Prosecutor office is involved at the end of the process rather than front end. SA Fox wants more money for resources to put in crime reduction investment and prevention. 

Observer - Laura Davis