Long before the pandemic, the sheriff of Cook County was livid that he
was routinely ordered by judges to put defendants accused of violent
crimes on home monitoring during pre-trial detention, in lieu of being
held in jail. This was long part of Cook County's efforts to reduce the
cost of operating the jail. The jail and court system are, by far, the
county's largest expense. The president of Cook County, Toni
Preckwinkle, was supported in this by chief judge Tim Evans. Way back
when, Tim Evans was an alderman and floor leader for Mayor Harold
Washington.
This was Evans' instructions to judges setting bond.
After more than a decade, the sheriff forced the issue during 2024.
Evans was forced to take over home monitoring in pre-trial detention,
assigning the task to adult probation (also part of his office), which
has its own home monitoring program using the same technology.
Evans didn't add any staff yet, but needs 150 new hires. The sheriff
will continue to monitor the 1500 defendants in pre-trial home
confinement but anticipate that their cases will all be resolved by
September.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2025/03/31/chief-judge-electronic-monitoring-cook-county-questions-staffing
State's attorney Eileen Burke, now in office a little more than four
months, has no confidence that the chief judge can operate the program effectively, as he has no law enforcement personnel nor investigators to apprehend escapees and must obtain police assistance. She says her
office prepared 57 escape charges since she took office in December.
Therefore, she ordered her assistant state's attorney to object each and
every time a judge puts a defendant with violent felony charges into pre
trial home confinement. Under Illinois's no-bail bond law (in which cash
bail was abolished), there is an additional burden on prosecutors to
present evidence of the defendant's arrest and conviction record at the
bond hearing to argue that the defendant doesn't qualify for bond and
should be held in jail.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago/2025/04/07/cook-county-states-attorney-electronic-monitoring
Kim Foxx never challenged orders of home monitoring.
Burke got a Trib editorial.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/09/editorial-eileen-oneill-burke-electronic-monitoring/
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