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On June 21, 2022, at 6:00 PM, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers will host their Seeds of Justice event, which will honor Sharone Mitchell, Jr., the Cook County Public Defender, for his commitment to ensuring equitable and accessible justice for all people in Cook County.
Former Inspector General for the City of Chicago, Joe Ferguson, will give the keynote address.
Click here for the event flyer.
ABOUT US
Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers form a "Collaboration for Justice" focused on improving lives by improving the courts. Our courts sit at the intersection of systemic problems in our communities and the government’s response to them. We cannot build an equitable and just world without equitable and just courts.
For more than thirty years,
Chicago Appleseed and the Council of Lawyers have fought for the systemic changes needed to ensure fair and anti-racist courts in Cook County, Illinois, and beyond.
Together, we leverage the unique insights and best practices of members, volunteers, and community partners to interrupt cycles of poverty, mass incarceration, and racial injustice perpetrated by all aspects of the legal system. Through mixed-method, community-informed research, the Collaboration for Justice advocates for practical, evidence-based solutions to improve the quality of justice in Cook County.
PROGRAMMING - PART ONE - OCTOBER 5th
PANEL
CONFIRMED PANELISTS
Garien Gatewood
Executive Director
Illinois Justice Project
Garien joined the Illinois Justice Project in April 2019 and became the Director in 2021. As part of the Illinois Justice Project, he has been involved in the work of the Coalition to End Money Bond. Previously, he was the Director of Policy Advocacy at the Juvenile Justice Initiative, where his work focused on legislation on both local and state levels with a focus on the rights of children, detention reform, eliminating youth homelessness, juvenile expungement, and reentry. Prior to JJI, Gatewood earned his law degree from the University of Mississippi and worked for the Children’s Law Center focused on reentry services for youth throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky. During his time in law school, he clerked with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Mississippi Innocence Project. Currently, Garien Gatewood sits on Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Advisory Board, the National Juvenile Justice Network’s Membership Advisory Council, the Board of Directors for Restore Justice Illinois, and the Board of Directors for Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts.
State Senator Robert Peters
Illinois State Senator
13th District
Senator Peters is a proud South Sider and an even prouder Chicagoan. Senator Peters’ adopted mother and father were a social worker and a civil rights lawyer, respectively, which helped inspire his mission to fight for criminal justice reform. After college, he started as a community and political organizer back home in Chicago and successfully fought to require Cook County judges to set affordable bail amounts for all defendants, leading to a substantial reduction in the Cook County Jail population since it took effect in July 2017. As a State Senator, Peters has continued advocating for pretrial justice, working hand-in-hand with the Coalition to End Money Bond and was a chief sponsor of the SAFE-T Act (IL Public Act 101-0652), which will end money bail in 2023 and includes a range of other criminal system and policing reforms. In the 102nd General Assembly, Senator Peters will serve as the Chair of the Public Safety Committee and as a member of the Criminal Law, Environment and Conservation, Health, Human Rights, Labor, and Revenue Committees.
Sarah Staudt
Senior Policy Analyst & Staff Attorney
Collaboration for Justice
Sarah has been the Senior Policy Analyst & Staff Attorney for Criminal Justice matters at Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts since 2018. Sarah graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 2013. Before coming to work with Chicago Appleseed, Sarah was an Equal Justice Works Fellow and criminal defense attorney with the Lawndale Christian Legal Center (LCLC) where she represented juveniles and young adults in the Cook County Criminal Courts. During her time at Chicago Appleseed, Sarah has focused on pretrial court reform issues through our work as a member of the Coalition to End Money Bond and was instrumental in the drafting and advocating for the groundbreaking Pretrial Fairness Act, which passed in 2021. The Pretrial Fairness Act makes Illinois the first state to fully end money bail and restructure the pretrial justice system. Sarah also leads Chicago Appleseed’s other criminal legal reform work, such as projects focused on electronic detention, abolishing overly punitive sentencing systems, and promoting court system efficiency, fairness, and accountability.
RELATED READING FOR THIS PANEL INCLUDES...
10 Facts about Pretrial Electronic Monitoring in Cook County
Chicago Appleseed & Chicago Council of Lawyers, September 2021
Electronic Prisons: The Operation of Ankle Monitoring in the Criminal Legal System
Kate Weisburg, George Washington University Law School, September 2021
Bail Abolition is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Maya Dukmasova, Chicago Reader, May 2021
Key Accomplishments of the Pretrial Fairness Act
Coalition to End Money Bond, February 2021
Coalition to End Money Bond, September 2020
PROGRAMMING - PART TWO - OCTOBER 19th
Keynote
RELATED READING FOR THIS PROGRAM INCLUDES...
A special thank you to our GENEROUS SPONSORS for their support...
CHAMPIONS
$10,000
PARTNERS
$5,000
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ADVOCATES
$2,500
ANONYMOUS
ALLIES
$1,000
MATT DANIELS
CANDACE KORKIS
DR. MARY PATILLO
FRIENDS
$500
AVIVA FUTORIAN
EMILY GILMAN
MALCOLM RICH
LAURA DAVIS
JULIA WATERHOUS
SONYA NAAR
"When it comes to Chicago Appleseed and the Collaboration for Justice, I always talk about it as an
INVESTMENT versus a donation. I feel like Chicago Appleseed has done so much work to try to fundamentally
change the infrastructure of this city, and restore some degree of equity and justice in the Chicago courts."
Eamon and Kay Daly
Chicago Residents, and Longtime Financial Supporters of the Collaboration for Justice
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