By Gary Marx and Matthew Walberg
Chicago Tribune
Cook County sheriff, judge fight over criminals’ release
Cook County sheriff rejects accusations of widespread abuse
COOK COUNTY, Ill. — Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart is pushing ahead with a plan to transform Bond Court in an effort to better screen pretrial detainees and reduce chronic overcrowding at County Jail.
 (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File) |
Daniel Gallagher, an attorney representing Dart, told a federal judge Friday an improved Bond Court would give judges more information to better determine whether a non-violent pretrial detainee should be held in custody or released on electronic monitoring.
County officials estimate it will cost about $900,000 to move the Bond Court from the Criminal Courts Building at 26th Street and California Avenue to an unused annex at the jail.
The new Bond Court would have a courtroom, larger holding facilities and conference rooms and could be completed by next September, Gallagher said.
“It’s a work in progress,” he told U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall.
Inmate advocates say one reason for the jail overcrowding is that Bond Court judges, lacking sufficient information on new detainees, often err on the side of caution and order them held in custody.
The vast majority of individuals arrested in Chicago for felony crimes appear in either Central Bond Court during the workweek or Weekend Bond Court to have a judge set bail. On any given day, more than 100 defendants may be on the court call, and for years each had to appear in person before a judge.
But since January 1999, hearings have been held via closed-circuit television for security and efficiency. But critics complain the process eroded defendants’ rights.
Kendall praised the new Bond Court proposal, as did Locke Bowman, legal director of the MacArthur Justice Center who represents pretrial detainees in a lawsuit over the overcrowding.
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