Public Defender and Clerk of the Court Appear at Cook County Budget Hearings

Cook County Board Finance Committee - Departmental Budget Hearings 
Day #6 - October 24, 2016 

Amy Campanelli, the Public Defender of Cook County began her testimony with a moving video about some of her most memorable cases along with interviews from some of her staff about the important work that they perform. She stated that her office is: “THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS”.
Proposed Budget:
FY17 - $76,200,929
FY16 - $64,970,115
Proposed FTEs:
FY17 - 677
FY16 - 698
She is requesting $2 million more than the President’s recommendation because:

1. Her caseload is approximately 350 felonies and 857 misdemeanors per attorney. This is way over the ABA guidelines of 150 felonies and 400 misdemeanors. Other large counties have caps on the amount of cases per attorney, which keeps the numbers down.
2. She needs to hire more investigators and paralegals.
3. She needs to have 4 Spanish interpreters, she currently has only 1 for all of the cases.
4. Investing in proper defense procedures now, saves future costs in potential lawsuits, wrongful convictions, expensive incarceration, and ruined lives that must be repaired.

For further justification for her request she cited these accomplishments of her office:

1. Community Outreach. She  goes to high schools, churches, community centers, law schools to explain the criminal justice system to mainly people at risk. She calls the system the criminal courts system because she feels that “justice” is not always achieved.
2. Training seminars.160 of these took place last year for staff.
3. Mental Health. She meets regularly with HHS  to coordinate treatment for the mentally ill detainees.
4. Juvenile Justice. She has implemented weekend hours for bond court for juveniles. She has secured counsel for juveniles under 15 charged with murder and/or sex related crimes.
5. Bond Court Reform. In her meetings with other stakeholders she has pushed for the use of the Public Safety Assessment Tool to be used in ALL bond courtrooms. In addition she has advocated the elimination of cash bail. People who are flight risks or at risk of reoffending should be held without bond, The rest should be released until their next court date. 
6. Restorative Justice Court will be up and running in the spring of 2017. This type of court involves the community in repairing the lives of both victim and offender.

Questions/Concerns of the Commissioners:

• Comm. Boykin led things off by asking if there was too much plea bargaining and if bond court was broken? Ms. Campanelli answered “Yes” to both questions. But plea bargaining to a lesser crime is preferable to  spending more time in Cook County Jail awaiting trial. On bond court she held out some hope that the new PSA (Public Safety Assessment) tool would be useful and objective. She reiterated her desire to get rid of cash bail.
• Comm. Gainer asked about the caseload numbers and if they reflect those that get dismissed. Ms. Campanelli said that they did reflect all cases. She said that 50% of misdemeanors get dismissed. She wondered why these folks got arrested in the first place. She plans on talking with the new police superintendent of Chicago and the new State’s Attorney to work on more meaningful arrests.She was also asked about having public defenders at all police stations. This is something that Ms.Campanelli is working on. She would like posters with the PD’s phone number in all police stations in the county.
• She was asked about the Multiple Defendant Unit. Ms. Campanelli believes that no attorney should represent 2 clients in the same case. She will testify in front of the  Illinois Supreme Court this spring about this issue. She feels that the potential for conflict of interests is too great.
• Comm. Garcia asked if detainees win their cases more often if they are out on bond before trial. She felt that they had more of a chance to participate in their own defense if they were not in jail.
• Comm. Suffredin told Ms. Campanelli that she should just TELL the commissioners what she needed and not ask. She reiterated her request for $2 million more than the president recommended.

Ms. Campanelli was compelling in her testimony. She made the commissioners feel the importance of her office mission, which is to bring representation to all clients. That is what the 6th Amendment to the US Constitution is all about. 
All commissioners were present except for Comm. Goslin and Comm. Butler.

Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County -  Clerk Dorothy Brown
Proposed Budget
FY17 - $126,104,069
FY16 - $105, 360,894
Proposed FTEs
FY17 - 1633
FY16 - 1685

Clerk Brown stated that most of her monetary increase was due to personnel costs (such as raises and step increases), document scanning, computerization of judge’s orders, E-filing and the relocation of files to the warehouse in Cicero.
Accomplishments Cited:

• E filing. Litigants are now able to electronically file their cases. All appeals will be E-filed starting July of 2017. 21 police districts can electronically write tickets. She is working on CPD.
• Website. She modernized her website so that people can pay fines and fees on it. 
  
• Payment plans. She will soon have in place a system whereby defendants can pay their fines on an installment plan, possibly with checking accountant automatic withdrawals. This can be set up right after a defendant’s fine is imposed in court.
  
• Expungement summits and seminars. All around Cook County these meetings take place whereby wrongfully accused defendants can have their records cleared. Lawyers are on site to help with this work. This is called a summit. The seminar is a meeting in which these summits are explained to the community.Defendants can have their cases dropped, they can be released from jail, but their records still reflects the arrests and in some cases, their convictions.
  
• Case management. Her new system will be fully automated by 2017.

Questions/Comments from Commissioners:

• Comm. Boykin asked a few questions about child support. The Clerk said that these orders come from the state. He also thanked her for the expungement summits and seminars.
• Comm. Steele asked about the Cicero facility and if the Recorder of Deeds can use it as well. The Clerk said that she would reach out to the Recorder to get this done.
  
• Comm. Silverstri asked about postage rates going up. She said that they should go down as soon as all of the documents were delivered to Cicero.  He also asked about internal cases of harassment among her employees. The Clerk said that these might be increasing.
  
• Comm. Gainer asked about the ability of the Clerk’s office to analyze bond cases judge by judge. The Clerk said that this could be done. She spoke of great improvements in bond court due to stakeholders’ meeting regularly.
  
• Comm. Simms asked about the use of carbon paper. The Clerk admitted to the dual use of paper and electronically produced copies.

Clerk Brown ended her comments and invited commissioners to set up Expungement Seminars in their districts.
Commissioners Present: During the first part of her talk only Comm. Tobolski, Boykin, Steele, Sylvester, Morrison, Daley and Garcia were present. Comm. Schnieder, Sufferdin, Sims, Moody, and Gainer trickled in later.

Observer - Jan Goldberg