Cook County Jail's Divison 1 was demolished in 2021.
Artist María Gasper & vibraphonist Thaddeus Dukes repurposed some of the cell bars to build a musical instrument to bring attention to prison abolition.
thecatalystnews.com/2026/03/06/m...
“Between the first half of 2024 and 2025, her policies contributed to an additional 1,068 people being locked up. When Cook County experiences historic decreases in both property and violent crime, there should be fewer pretrial detention motions, not more.”
"Eileen O’Neill Burke promised to protect pretrial justice. One year in, her policies suggest a return to the politics of punishment."
Pastor Otis Moss weighs in on State's Attorney Burke's first year in office.
chicagoreader.com/columns-opin...
Martinez Duncan died while incarcerated in Cook County Jail last November, now the jail is being investigated for potential wrongdoing.
We must work to further reduce the number of people caged in Cook County Jail to save lives.
chicago.suntimes.com/public-safet...
We know what keeps us safe: community investment, violence interruption & ensuring that the size of your back account doesn't determine whether or not you can access the presumption of innocence.
We so deeply appreciate this new op-ed from State Rep. Lisa Davis: chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
Tomorrow, Gov. Pritzker will share his draft of the state budget.
Help increase access to vital services for people awaiting trial by calling on the governor to include an expansion of the Pretrial Success Grants program in the state budget: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...
Last month, we joined more than 100 organizations to call on Gov. Pritzker & the general assembly to resist federal coercion and refuse to retreat into regressive policy rollbacks.
Read more about our collective call to action:
www.ibjonline.com/2026/02/12/d...
Between January 2023 & October 2025, Chicago’s whitest police districts gave a majority of their tickets to Black and Latiné drivers despite the fact that over 70% of their residents are white?
Learn more about racial disparities & traffic stops here: static1.squarespace.com/static/63d2d...
Researchers at the Loyola Chicago Center for Criminal Justice concluded that the primary driver of incarceration in Cook County Jail was changes in the rate at which prosecutors request detention in the first 6 months of 2025.
endmoneybond.org/states-attor...
Researchers at the Loyola Chicago Center for Criminal Justice concluded that the primary driver of incarceration in Cook County Jail was changes in the rate at which prosecutors request detention in the first 6 months of 2025.
endmoneybond.org/states-attor...
People locked up in Cook County Jail are forced to spend thousands of dollars each year to meet their most basic needs.
In 2025, incarcerated in Cook County Jail spent around $430,000 on over 159,000 bars of soap.
southsideweekly.com/why-are-we-d...
More often than not, missing court is an accident.
And yet, 546,000 jail bookings in 2024 were due to arrests related to failure to appear warrants. If no one was jailed for missing court, there would be 52,000 fewer people in jail each day nationwide
www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/01...
Join us for another round of community court watching! Starting in March, we’ll be watching pretrial hearings in DuPage County to monitor implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act.
Register for a training here: bit.ly/DupageCourtwatch
More than 100 advocacy, health and human services, faith and community organizations have come together to call on Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to stand strong against Trump's attacks.
Read the letter: endmoneybond.org/100-advocacy...
Law enforcement claimed that crime would skyrocket when Illinois ended money bond in 2023.
In 2025, we saw crime rates drop throughout the state. The Elgin chief of police went as far as saying that last year had "one of the lowest crime levels we’ve recorded in decades".
"Researchers at the University of Chicago found that for every 1% increase in eviction rate in a given census tract, there were 2.66 additional shootings"
If we want safer communities, we need to invest in them.
www.wbez.org/housing/2026...
Last week, the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives held a hearing in which they discussed two reactionary and dangerous bills aimed specifically at increasing the number of presumed innocent people imprisoned while awaiting trial.
Learn more: endmoneybond.org/us-house-of-...
5 years ago today, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Pretrial Fairness Act. Hundreds of millions of dollars that would have been used to purchase the presumption of innocence are instead staying in our state’s most marginalized communities.
Read more: endmoneybond.org/five-years-a...
"I'm so proud Illinois became the first state to end the use of cash bail" - @chuygarcia.house.gov
We are so grateful for Rep. Garcia's vigorous defense of the Pretrial Fairness Act at yesterday's House Judiciary hearing on bills attacking pretrial reform.
Watch: www.youtube.com/live/65whKL3...
While the Pretrial Fairness Act has been in effect, crime rates have been dramatically falling and the majority of people released while awaiting trial are succeeding.
They said ending money bond would cause "the end of days".
What we actually saw during the second year of implementation in Chicago:
- 35% decrease in shootings.
- 36% decrease in robberies
- The fewest killings since 1965.
chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/0...
People incarcerated in Cook County Jail talked with Southside Weekly about the gross & unhealthy meals and expensive commissary food items:
southsideweekly.com/going-hungry...
Send a letter to help protect our communities and people awaiting trial. As the nation continues to push criminalization, we need to ramp up vital life saving resources so our communities can have a chance.
The Pretrial Success Act is connecting people awaiting trial to services like transportation and child care to help get them to court & providing resources for people with mental health & substance use disorder needs.
Tell your legislators to expand it: actionnetwork.org/letters/d76f...
This @capitolfax.bsky.social column lays out the facts about pretrial release and safety
and gestures toward the political and financial motives of those who (my words) lie in wait for a tragedy to exploit
"SAFE-T Act criticism after Blue Line attack is mostly misguided" by Rich Miller
chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2...
Instead of reducing scrutiny of Chicago Police, State's Attorney Burke should be increasing it. The elimination of felony review for many gun cases is ripe for abuse.
Read FDLA Civil Right's Clinic Director Daniel Massoglia's full letter to the editor here: chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-t...
Pretrial jailing in Cook County has increased dramatically since Eileen O'Neill Burke took office last year. Come learn about the harmful policies she has put in place and how communities are fighting back.
Register here: actionnetwork.org/events/commu...
State's Attorney Burke ended the office’s policy of both keeping and disclosing a list of police officers who have a history of lying in court and committing misconduct. This signals to cops they will not be held accountable by the chief law enforcement officer of Cook County.
Yesterday, Cook State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke celebrated her first year in office. Community members angered over her policies, which have increased the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail 14%, disrupted the event several times.
🎥 submitted to @lucyparsonslabs.com
