Backlog leaves 100s in Cook County Jail for more than year
CARLOS BALLESTEROS of Injustice Watch
Apr 30, 2021
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CHICAGO (AP) More than 2,600 people have been in custody at the Cook County Jail or at home on electronic monitoring for more than a year as a massive backlog of felony cases has piled up at the Cook County Circuit Court.
The backlog is a direct result of restrictions that Chief Judge Timothy Evans put in place last year to limit the spread of Covid-19. Evans postponed all jury trials and scaled back most court operations. Even when court cases picked up again on Zoom, technical difficulties and some defendants’ lack of access to computers or internet delayed cases further, and some proceedings could only be done in person.
April 29, 2021
In a letter submitted to Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts on April 29, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press expressed concern about the governor’s recent decision to bar a local news outlet from attending his press briefings.
Ricketts denied North Omaha Information Support Everyone, or NOISE, access to press briefings because his administration considered the news outlet to be “an advocacy organization funded by liberal donors.” The Reporters Committee’s letter, joined by 12 news organizations and one journalism professor, disputes that characterization, noting that NOISE is a nonprofit news group and part of the Institute for Nonprofit News, which requires that its members “do not advocate or operate in a way that promotes any legislation, policies, government action or outcomes.”
State orders Chicago to fix special education in detention
KELLY GARCIA of Injustice Watch
April 23, 2021
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CHICAGO (AP) The Illinois State Board of Education has ordered Chicago Public Schools to fix problems with special education services for students at the high school in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.
The state’s corrective action plan comes after two legal aid groups filed a complaint with ISBE back in November alleging that CPS “essentially halted” special education services during the Covid-19 pandemic for students at Nancy B. Jefferson Alternative School inside the detention center.
The nonprofit news outlet Injustice Watch provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News.
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