n what was the first Peter Lisagor Awards ceremony for the handful of South Side Weekly editors and contributors who attended, the 45th anniversary celebration was a reaffirming event for non-profit, community, and ethnic media in Chicago. South Side Weekly had an unprecedented (for the publication) thirteen nominations, and on Friday, May 6, at the […]
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Posted inLatest
Who’s Supervising Overtime at CPD?
hortly after taking command of the Chicago Police Department in April 2020, Superintendent David Brown moved to curtail overtime spending by issuing an order requiring supervisors who are ranked deputy chief or higher to approve all overtime requests. More than a year later, it’s unclear whether that order had any effect. Records obtained by the […]
Posted inJustice
Sharone Mitchell Jr. on Coming ‘Home’
n March, the Cook County Board unanimously voted to confirm Sharone Mitchell Jr. as the county’s new public defender. Mitchell, the former director of the Illinois Justice Project, had previously worked for the public defender’s office for six years as a trial attorney handling misdemeanor, felony, and civil cases. A Chicago native, Mitchell attended Morgan […]
Posted inHealth
What Went Wrong at Cook County Jail
few days before Easter, Karl Battiste called his daughter Karla with a headache. He wasn’t feeling well and was worried about the spread of COVID-19 in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, where he was incarcerated at the time. Battiste told his daughter that he was being held right across from two people who had tested positive […]
Posted inActivism
Chicago Police Overtime Broke Department Records in 2020
he Chicago Police Department spent more than $177 million on overtime last year, a twenty-seven percent jump from 2019 and the highest annual total in recent memory. Staffing shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to popular uprisings against police violence drove much of the spending, and apparently thwarted an early attempt by Superintendent […]
Posted incoronavirus/COVID-19
Cook County Jail Starts Vaccinating Detainees for COVID-19
n Monday, February 1, authorities started vaccinating people incarcerated in Cook County Jail for COVID-19, beginning with a small number of the most vulnerable residents. Approximately 150 of the more than 5,000 people detained in the jail had been vaccinated in the first three days of vaccine administration. Vaccinations for guards and staff at the […]
Posted inActivism
Should Protesters be Prosecuted? Foxx and O’Brien Differ
n December 2016, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx was tasked with leading the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the country. The first African-American woman to hold the office, she promised to be a progressive prosecutor, one of a wave of similar district attorneys (DAs) and state’s attorneys across the country. These prosecutors have prioritized reducing […]
Posted incoronavirus/COVID-19
Sitting Ducks: ‘Leaving People in the Jail Is Leaving People to Die’
fter significant reductions in the Cook County Jail population, which reached a record low of 4,026 at the height of the pandemic, the number of people in jail is once again on the rise after the protests and arrests of the last few weeks. Currently, 4,524 people are awaiting trial or serving out sentences in […]
Posted inEducation
City Cited a School for Feeding Protesters
ate in the evening of May 30, as unrest swirled across the Loop and River North and reports of violence and looting blared from police scanners, a squad of CPD officers and investigators from the Department of Business and Consumer Protection (BACP) stood in the doorway of the Chicago Freedom School, demanding entry. The officers […]
Posted inJustice
The Contradictions of a Progressive Police Chief
David Brown brands himself as a ‘progressive’ chief. His record is more complicated.