This week, the MacArthur Foundation announced its $75 million commitment to tackling over-incarceration in U.S. jails. Under the foundation’s newly created Safety and Justice Challenge, 20 jurisdictions across the country competed for $150,000 grants to develop unique solutions to a national problem. Although the amount of money may be relatively small, the competition is uniting major criminal justice stakeholders in a county with the largest single-site jail in the country — and one that’s in dire need of reform.
For years, members of Cook County’s criminal justice system have been embroiled in debates about how to reduce jail overcrowding, the over-incarceration and mistreatment of juveniles, and a growing mental health crisis. Recently, however, various policies have been implemented to chip away at Cook County Jail’s problems. The distribution of ankle bracelets has reduced the number of people sitting behind bars by granting them freedom of movement in the general population while under correctional supervision. As a result of this electronic monitoring system, there are fewer people housed in the jail. And in what was heralded as a major development last week, a psychologist signed on to become the jail’s executive director, signaling a shift in how mental health is treated.
With additional funds, Cook County hopes to capitalize on recent momentum by strengthening stakeholder collaboration.
According to Michael Carroll, the Director of Information Services for the Cook County Circuit Court, the jail has been a primary concern for courts, attorneys, and law enforcement officials for quite some time. “Chief Judge Timothy Evans has convened meetings of the stakeholders for the past couple of years. One of the things that has come out of this process is that the chief judge, in collaboration with stakeholders, was able to reduce the time from preliminary hearings to arraignment from 21 days to 14 days. We’ve tightened up the administrative processes. The State Attorney’s Office implemented close to 30 deferred prosecution programs,” he explained.
“There are things that have been in place already. What this grant does is it helps pull us together even tighter to really come up with more creative solutions moving forward.” In addition to electronic monitoring, Carroll thinks mental health will be a focal point, with a possible emphasis on intervention at the time of arrest.
Outside of Cook County, widespread enthusiasm for the Safety and Justice Challenge revealed how desperate stakeholders are to develop solutions. Nearly 200 jurisdictions in 45 states applied for the money. The Director of MacArthur’s Justice Reform Program Laurie Garduque told ThinkProgress, “The response was overwhelming to us, and it demonstrated that while national attention hadn’t been focused on over-incarceration and the misuse of jails, local stakeholders know that there is a serious issue. Those issues at the local level require local solutions, so we thought the best way to focus attention on the problem was through a request for proposals and a competitive application process.”
Moving forward, the 20 jurisdictions have six months to put together comprehensive courses of action. The foundation will reward $500,000–2 million to 10 jurisdictions with the best plans. “We know that there are innovative policies and practices at each of the key decision points that lead people to be admitted into jail,” continued Garduque. “The problem is that each of those decision points is represented by different decision-makers. All of the applications had to demonstrate that there was leadership capacity, commitment, and an alignment of all the different stakeholders involved.”
According to Carroll, decision-makers in Cook County will rely heavily on data to inform their next move. With so many elected officials in the conversation, information consolidation is crucial. “We’ll be scouring respective systems for data, pulling it together, and evaluating it from a system-wide perspective,” he said. So far, inmates have not been included in discussions, but Carroll stressed that the group is still in the early planning stages.
“What became apparent to us is that most of the attention has been given to the federal and state prison population. The numbers were striking to us in that there are 12 million jail admissions annually — 20 times the number of people admitted to prison,” Garduque concluded. “The challenge will create an opportunity to highlight local solutions to a national problem, elevate the issues to greater public awareness, and then hopefully have more jurisdictions learn from and emulate the jurisdictions in the Safety and Justice network.”