I will now reconvene the meeting of the criminal justice committee.

And now I would move that Michael's guide.

Chair the meeting.

Roll call.

All in favor.

All in favor.

Aye.

The eyes have it.

Madam Secretary, do we still have a quorum?

At your recess meeting, you had all members present with the exception of absence for Commissioner Britton.

Excuse absences for Commissioner Gaynor, Commissioner Moore, Commissioner Sean Morrison, and Commissioner Stamps.

We will add Commissioner Kevin Morrison to the role.

Thank you.

You were your own role.

Yep.

We don't have uh remote participation, correct?

Correct.

Any additions to the agenda?

You do not have any additions to your agenda, but you do have several public speakers.

Before we get started with public speakers, I just would like to apologize for the wait.

We appreciate your willingness to wait and this issue.

So uh we just want to make sure that you understand we we apologize and we appreciate you.

Um Madam Secretary, if you can now uh read the rules of participation.

Rules for public speaking, persons authorized to provide public testimony shall not use vulgar, abusive, discriminatory, profane, or otherwise inappropriate language when addressing the board.

Failure to act appropriately or failure to adhere to the time requirements may result in expulsion from the meeting and or disqualify the person from providing future testimony.

All speakers will have three minutes.

I will notify you when one minute is left and 30 seconds.

Your first speaker is George Blakemore, who I do not see in the room.

Following George Blakemore, Rorinda Alley and Diane Brown.

If you are still in a room, can you please proceed to the public testimony, Mike?

Retrinda Alley and Diane Brown.

And if you could state your name for the record and proceed.

Hello, my name is Retrenda Alley.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

It's been a long day, yeah.

My docket number uh 2010 D080864 goes back to 2010.

Illinois law, the Illinois Domestic Violence Act requires courts to weigh a respondent's pattern of past abuse.

That's the statute and not my opinion.

My file shows that pattern.

A 2022 preliminary protective order violated and documented by email in orders of temporary and no in orders of therapy and supervised visitation, which he never complied with.

A decade of child support noncompliance followed, including a 2016 order of modification to $90 a month for 26 weeks that left that was left lapsed and only pays fairly sensed.

And a 2024 purge order with a body attachment, which is still unenforced two years later.

While I've just spent thousands of dollars chasing orders that are already um on the docket, it's already in the system.

Judge Maritza Martinez and her court staff with no reporter in sight, court reporter, um, had access to the same Click County records that I found in a matter of minutes.

That pattern um it shows the lack of due diligence that was done by this justice system, which I've depended on when it comes to reporting crimes and things like that, just not taking matters into my own hands.

Um, but that has left me searching for more resources.

Um I really found that the survivors um within this city have been the ones supporting me through this uh 14 year stint of dealing with this individual that I've uh partnered with.

And um that's just the facts.

I am the only parent supporting our daughter in every way, and this process has really taken a toll on my finances.

The very first day that um I approached Judge Maritza Martinez um two years ago when I was requesting an order of protection, it was denied.

Um the consideration was taken more so on the opposition's part because he had body camera footage of the police officer giving him sympathy in the moment.

So I mean entire conduct was not considered um or weighed, and the pattern that is blatantly in the system public record was definitely ignored in my case.

So that that this past two years was very unnecessary, it could have been prevented.

It could have been prevented.

That same pattern is now playing out publicly, and I want those women to hear this directly.

I recognize exactly what you're describing because I lived it for years before you had to speak up about it.

30 seconds.

Women across Chicago and other places have spoken out about the situation.

Um it's just the survivors coming to our rescue.

So I just strongly encourage you all to fund um this task force and what it's about.

Um it really matters.

Um, individuals like me, citizens here out here just making a difference in the community, creating impact through different nonprofit organizations that I work with.

Um, I'm seeing the need for the support when it comes to DV and the protection of individuals who are please conclude your statement.

These courtrooms have on the wall in God, we trust what I've leaned on in this chaos is Romans 320.

Here I am.

I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

I just invite you all to get on the God side of this and kind of help protect us.

We need it now more than we ever needed it before.

And thank you.

Our next speaker, Diane Brown.

Good afternoon.

My name is Elder Diane Brown.

On July 22nd, 2025, for seven hours, we sat in this room, listening to our survivors and their journey through hard work coming together each month, City of Chicago, Cook County, violence against women task force was formed, and I have hope now because cases that's extending all these years, and this is a simple task, but I'm grateful to all the commissioners.

They're diligent of listening to us.

I'm grateful for the city of Chicago and the funding.

Because there's still not enough people.

Um I understand with these jobs you have, but there's not enough transparency.

I don't want to say any hard harsh words concerning anyone.

I'm grateful that we're at this point that we're talking, and all of these working uh pieces came together and we unified now, but it's so much work we have to do.

Uh like having core reporters in the courtroom or some type type of electrical surveillance or something.

And I've heard what my uh sister said about one minute, the judges.

The judges, we have to face fact.

The judges, some judges, Judge Maritza Martinez.

She should be pulled.

Judge Bernadette Barrett should be pulled.

I'm not mad, I'm disappointed because I believed in the system.

I believe in Cook County, and I still do, and I'm thankful for what you all have done.

I'm thankful to all of the commissioners.

July 22nd.

You all listened, you heard, you seen.

I'm grateful.

Thank you, Donna Miller, Commissioner Down Middle, and all of these commissioners, unanimously, you all voted for this task force, and I'm hopeful because there's a lot of work to be done.

We're gonna go down to Springfield, we're gonna continue to fight because you care, you're human.

I see that.

And thank you for listening, for caring and approving this task force.

Well, we have a lot, lots expired of things that we should be doing, but I'm grateful at this point.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Our next two public speakers are Virtual Lakeisha Tate and Yolanda Carter.

Please proceed to the mic.

Lakeisha Tate, are you connected?

Is she young or please proceed, ma'am?

Okay.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I am Yolanda Carter.

I am a product of a violent crime that was committed against me March 22nd of 2016.

I became an advocate from being an advocate.

I became a member of a organization with Crime Survivors Speak that has over 200,000 members.

From that I started a nonprofit organization.

So the reason why I'm here today, because we need to talk more about the resources that uh the nonprofit, the smaller nonprofit organizations don't really receive.

Um I my organization, what we do is we are uh it's called Beautifully Scarred, and we are a resource to resource organization.

We um connect with a lot of the other organizations, the the public leaders and um a lot of um outside uh people.

But the thing is when we look for support, there's no support.

Uh when the people are reaching out for help, we go down the rabbit's hole trying to figure out where, who can we reach out to, and when we reach out to a lot of the um the shelters and a lot of the support, there's none.

Um so that means that what these people have to go back to their abusers.

They have to go places and be stuck in places.

So what we're saying is that we just want more help and support when it comes down to the small organizations, because we are really out here trying to do the work, but because of the lack of funds, we we only limit it.

I've also talked to other uh people from other states that reached out to say, can you help?

You know, can you donate, send some money or something so a person can at least get a hotel?

So that's my concern.

I just want you all to look at it as if we know that the need is there.

One minute.

So thank you.

That's not out loud.

Thank you.

Let me revisit those that did not respond.

Lakeisha Tate, George Blackmore.

That concludes your list of public speakers.

Thank you, Madam Secretary.

Uh Commissioner Laurie moves to approve the minutes 26, 1955, and 26, 1957.

The approval of the minutes from the meeting on June 9th and 10th, and seconded by Commissioner Miller.

All those in favor say aye.

And the motion carries.

Commissioner Miller moves to receive and file item 261422, the Chicago Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force on recommendations to approve domestic violence processes in Chicago and Cook County.

The report is from January 2026 to June 26th.

Uh seconded by Anaya.

And we will now have a presentation.

Oh no, before we do the presentation, excuse me.

I'm sorry, before we do the presentation, I would like for uh Commissioner Miller to speak on this item.

Thank you so much, Chair.

So good afternoon, everybody.

I know it's been a long day, so thank you all for being here.

And I just want to thank everyone who spoke and shared your personal testimony.

We know that that's difficult, and we appreciate it because unfortunately, this is what it's gonna take to get some things done, and that is why I'm proud to share the outcomes today uh that were conducted by the Chicago Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force.

I want to extend my gratitude to my co-chair on the city side, uh Alderwoman, Tabaris, and especially thank Chicago 77 who will be presenting this today, and Commissioners Anaya, Degnan, Gaynor, and Commissioner McCaskill, as well as Stamps who participated in some of our meetings.

And to all the county agencies that took part and the city agencies, and most important again, I just want to reiterate how this could not have been done without the advocates and survivors, because this was a survivor victim-led uh process.

And this is what the task force was all about.

So over these last six months, which seemed to go by very quickly, but it was a focus on critical work to address domestic violence and domestic relations.

Our primary goal was to identify and dismantle the systemic barriers that make it difficult for survivors to navigate our court system, as was illuminated yet again today by our speakers.

So when we launched this initiative, the urgency was clear that in 2025, domestic violence accounted for 26% of all violent crimes in Chicago, meaning one and of four violent offenses citywide was domestic violence.

We are seeing a 61.5 increase in fatal domestic shootings and 22.6% increase in domestic homicides compared to the previous year.

And as we keep, I keep saying and reiterating, these are not just statistics.

These are our friends, our neighbors, our sisters, our brothers and family members who have lost their lives and have their lives irrevocably altered.

The report we're releasing today is a blueprint for action.

It's a it's designed to help keep women and families safe and to simplify the court process without adding the weight of further trauma.

The report is survivor focused, built upon a foundation of listening to what those with direct experience need and want to see changed.

For far too long, too many people have slipped through the cracks, they haven't been heard, they haven't had a seat at the table.

And this task force culminating in this report restores that voice, and together we're going to make sure we are breaking the silence on domestic violence.

We must continue to work together and keep a steady spotlight on this issue to ensure it does not fade from our public consciousness.

Our city and county partners are helping us shed this light.

I'm so grateful for this collaboration, this first of its kind collaboration, by the way, that has brought us to this day.

But our work does not end here.

We will carry forth these recommendations and continue to push for progress at the state and federal levels.

We are confronting a hidden crisis in our communities, and we're committed to seeing it through.

I want to thank you all so much for your involvement.

I also want to thank all of my colleagues.

To have unanimous support on something like this, not only here but in the city of Chicago, means that people are relating to this issue, and it affects us all no matter where we are.

Thank you, Commissioner Miller, for your work.

Uh Commissioner Anaya.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I also like to just join and make a few remarks.

Um, particularly because I think we are uh in a moment um that is so crucial to the city of Chicago and Cook County.

Um, you know, I think uh specifically uh the task force and um the undertaking that the task force had was it was a lot, and I think it was heavy, but it was powerful.

Um so I know over the last six months we have um you know come together on a monthly basis to hear from subject matter experts, city and county leaders, uh, but most importantly the survivors and those that um have experience navigating uh domestic violence court, but also domestic relations court and how um it becomes difficult.

Um, how uh the systems are complex, how the cases um uh sometimes uh impact and how those processes are, how they impact those that are coming to us either through uh the court system or also through a legal processes.

So while um the process for survivors um and their families is not linear, as commissioner as commissioners and county leaders, we have taken the time to educate ourselves and learn more of what survivors are facing when interacting again with various points in government.

Uh, one of the main recommendations of this the resp the report uplifts um the need for data sharing, transparency uh, and um the fact that it is a core value for us uh and it requires collaboration between government agencies, including the city, the county, and the state.

Uh, the report um and its convening today is not the end of this work.

Today we are simply taking the next steps uh to continue working towards our goals of eliminating violence against women uh in Cook County.

I want to thank uh Commissioner Miller, uh Alder, a woman Tavares, um, for all of their efforts in co-chairing this task force and also for allowing me to be a member.

Um, as many of you know, this is uh very personal uh to me.

Um, my mom is a survivor of domestic violence, and I do um everything that I can in order to to help the situation.

I think uh you, of course, Katie, um Carmen, uh Sarah, and all of those that were instrumental, um, not only in writing the report, but really formulating it and really being a sense of conveners through this process.

Um, I uh also want to just mention that I've been honored to kind of uh connect the dots um since I've been um you know uh been able to be one of the ones uh who uh has worked through the court system and programming working group.

I also want to take a moment to recognize those um that are present here, of course, uh from that working group.

I know we have the office of the chief judge.

We have uh uh uh Kate Nolan, um Hannah, and also uh Sarah Hawkins from the Office of the Public Guardian, but also want to thank um and uplift um our teams, Commissioner Miller's team and and my team and many of the commissioners.

I I know particularly Nancy, who has um from my team who has been um just at the forefront of a lot of this the discussion, anything from working the videos to really convening us so that we can uh again put forward uh the best compilation of what was discussed and actually get us to a place where we're improving the lives of the survivors.

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Dagna.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I would also like to thank Commissioner Miller, uh Commissioner Anaya, Aldra Mentaras, Katie, Carmen, Sarah, and everybody else that has put so much work into the hearings and generating this report.

I have been honored to be a part of this task force, and the work here is so incredibly important.

I think one of the things about domestic violence is that it so happens in the shadows, and so seeing people come before us, hearing their personal stories, it does get burned into your memory, and it shows that this is an issue that crosses all different types of lines, um, you know, areas in Cook County, regardless of your race or regardless of where you live or how much money you make.

And at the end of the day, what we need to do is protect those victims.

And there's a lot of shame that's around domestic violence, and somehow the people that are the victims end up being re-victimized because it's always well, what did you do to deserve this?

And so I think that we need to flip that narrative, bring this out of the shadows, talk about it in the real way that we know that the people that are victims don't need to be re-victimized.

They don't need to be looked at as somebody who deserved that domestic violence, and they're the ones that have the burden of going through the court system.

They're the ones that have the burden of not being able to access the data.

The real people that we should be worried about are the people that are perpetrating this violence against the people that we want to protect.

So I'm really impressed by the historically quick timing on this report.

Usually things in the county grind a little bit more slowly, but the six-month turnaround on this has been amazing, and it's much due to the women who were part of this task force.

The one thing I will say about the data is that it has showed that there are so many gaps in the data that really limits us in the county from seeking external support from other organizations that would love to contribute to support reductions in domestic violence.

So the better our data is, the more money we can get, and the huge reduction we will find in the number of victims we have because our systems will improve.

So it's great that it's documented, but as we said, this is only one step in a mini-phased approach.

And now the next step is to look at what these issues are from a bullet point systemic approach and start fixing them one by one.

So thank you guys for being here, and thank you for everybody on this board who has supported this endeavor.

Chair Daly.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And let me thank the survivors who testified to Katie, to Sarah, to Carmen, to Commissioner Miller, your your fellow commissioners, the entire board.

This report is a great timing as well.

We are going to be present the president will be presenting our budget.

So within this report, it shows what we can do in our government within the county itself among the agencies.

This board will demand that.

I know they will.

I know members on this board as individuals from the various agencies come up.

We will try to implement as much as possible.

Because that's what we should do.

Um Springfield is a different issue, but the timing could be better.

And I look forward to continue working with you.

Thank you.

Okay, so we're going to take this item up now, and then we'll have the presentation.

So there's a motion on the floor to receive and file uh item number 26 1422 of the Chicago Cook violence against women's task force recommendations to improve domestic violence processes in Chicago and Cook County.

Um it was moved by Commissioner Miller, seconded by Commissioner Naya.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those opposed.

Uh in the opinion of the chairs, the eyes have it.

Uh now we will have a presentation by Katie Dunn from Chicago 77.

Great.

Someone has this last floor.

Oh great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, good afternoon.

Um Commissioners and thank you, Chairman.

Um I would just first want to um uh extend our deepest gratitude for everyone um who's helped us, um, especially Commissioner Miller.

Sorry, I'm talking to you around the TV.

Uh our chair of these, obviously all the woman, uh, Savana Tabaris, but really these amazing leaders, um, Commissioner Degnan, Commissioner Naya, Commissioner Gaynor, and um my go-to for everything, Chairman Daly, uh, questions, um, he was taking my calls at all hours uh the last few months.

So thank you all so much.

Commissioner Stampson, some of the other commissioners that have also um uh reached out and been so helpful.

Um we're here today.

Um Sarah Brown, who you've met over the course of the last few months, uh came to us with her story.

Um, and that that story has really initiated this system-wide uh effort.

And um, but before that, um you know, um I I should be transparent in that I was going through this system myself.

A different different kind of situation, it was a mental health situation, and after about four days of phone numbers that nobody answered, or um you know, resources that were not there, um I started calling friends in the county system.

Um so I know how you know personally how difficult it is to go through this process to get an order protection on somebody that you care about and love um and how excruciating that is.

But also um, you know, at that time I wrote a bullet point letter to the former chief judge um offering to help, offering to work pro bono.

Um so to be here a couple years later with this report with all of this effort with all of these people behind it is really truly um remarkable.

But um I just know that the system was not working, but hearing Sarah's story was really showing the impact on um the path that victims have to become survivors, and really and truly the obstacles that are in place are immeasurable.

Um and so together, um everyone who is committed to public servants um has an obligation to work um together to remove those barriers.

Um the um Katie, before you go, can you uh name a title for the records?

You didn't say that I need you to do that.

My title is Oh, Katie Dunn, uh executive director of Chicago 77 charities.

Um and so I also want to thank Carmen Navarro Jacone, who was my phone a friend back in the day.

She helped me during that process, and she she knows the system better than anybody.

And then we also have John Buckley from Public Policy Lab.

Um, they are a new entity in Chicago, and we're so lucky to have them.

And Kelly Costello from Impact Partners and also uh Northwestern University and Wind and a lot of other endeavors.

Um so they'll be coming up next.

Um so just with that, if you don't mind the first slide.

Okay.

So um just to give a brief history.

Um when we started looking at this information, um as the Chicago Tribune editorial board reported.

Uh the state of Illinois has a higher death rate for intimate partner violence than the states of New York and California combined.

Um and so Commissioner Miller shared some of the initial uh statistics.

Um you can go ahead one more, um, with everyone, but just to kind of um just to share that in 2025 uh in the city of Chicago, the murder rate um the um this is a different one that I'm looking at.

Uh the murder rate increased um by 27 percent and fatal shootings by 56 percent.

Um in homicides in domestic cases, the uh black residents were 70 percent of the victims and 25 percent Hispanic, equating to 95 percent of all homicide victims were minority residents.

Uh this is just city Chicago data because Cook County data is not yet available, which is obviously part of the recommendations.

In 2026, 81% of the homicide victims in domestic cases have been black victims, and the majority have been women.

Next slide.

Oh, next slide.

So what brought us all together was conversations, input from victims, survivors, surviving family members, who left who lost loved ones.

And with Commissioner Miller's help and Alderman Tabaris's help, we initiated the City of Chicago Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force.

This critical effort formulated comprehensive whole government approach across the agencies of the city of Chicago and Cook County, and then we're very fortunate to have the state agencies voluntarily joined as well to address the public safety crisis impacting our most vulnerable residents.

Throughout this journey, and this is very different.

Commissioner Miller already spoke to the fact that this is the first of its kind, which is almost an uh unbelievable statement to bring the city and the county together for public safety, but it's also first of its kind because survivors and their voices led these efforts.

And so we're hearing directly from survivors and their experiences and their input.

Um and there's no proxy or anyone in between that's that's sharing these stories, and they've been a part of this effort.

Many of them have open cases, so um many of them are watching today or are a little um nervous about sharing if they have current cases.

Um but Sarah is here to tell her story, and she speaks on behalf of so many of the survivors that we've been working with over the past year.

Next slide.

Um so the progress really has been um a sprint, as Commissioner Decknin uh illuminated.

Um, but we're here today at the public hearing for phase one.

Um, and uh as Commissioner Nye said, this work is just beginning phase two.

We'll be we'll be back here in the fall of 2026 with uh the comprehensive plan that we've put forth and then other um input from uh future conversations going forward.

Next slide.

Um so the partner agencies here today, Chicago said we seven charities, the public policy lab, impact partners, and all in alliance, which is a new initiative that Sarah is heading up that she could tell you more about.

Next slide.

So this is a quote um from a book that just kind of got a resurgence because uh Oprah just selected it to be one of her book clubs.

But it's uh a researcher slash reporter that went around across the whole country, looked at every single programming, talked to survivors, surviving family members, um, looked at every evidence-based program, and this is really what she said saving lives comes down to, which is communication and across bureaucracies, across political ideologies and programs, people and systems and disciplines.

And truly, after this experience, um we could not agree more.

Next slide.

So the principal goals were to create a unified victim center system, improve first responder safety and health, who are also greatly impacted by domestic cases, and then also to reduce violent crime and victimizations across the board.

Next slide.

So the executive committee met here in these chambers with leaders, department heads, the representatives, hosted monthly public meetings to discuss high-level priorities.

Uh, these meetings included panel discussions, um, advocates, service providers, researchers, and experts from across the country.

The three main goals were transparency and accountability, data sharing, and record access, and then the development of the legislative agenda, which um we'll be pursuing in the fall downstate.

Next slide.

Um, in addition, there were six working groups or six um efforts on different fronts.

The first was the high priority court order uh led by Commissioner Degnan.

Uh, data and research was uh led by Commissioner Naya, court systems and programs were was led also by Commissioner Degnan, first responder, safety and health.

I think it was Commissioner Gainer, and then uh Commissioner Miller was across the board.

Training and policies uh, and then also the path to survivorhood, which we will um describe more.

Next slide.

So here is this is the confusing part.

Um, is unlike most other government systems, including the criminal justice system, the system, quote unquote, that is um that you need to go through to get an order of protection or to seek help from from the court system spans across civil and county systems, across most in many cases interaction with local law enforcement, including the Chicago Police Department.

You might have a civil case, a criminal case, multiple divisions in just the civil division alone.

And then really interact with agencies that have distinct statutory obligations.

This was reported by the Chicago Tribune editorial board and a couple other places, but really there's just what we found is there's no one in charge statutorily.

And we're not going to be able to fix that overnight.

But in hopes of bringing everybody together and starting to track data and outcomes.

So connecting these points will save lives.

Next slide.

So the public trust in the court system.

49% of residents expressed that they trust police to help during a call, while only 28% of residents trust the Cook County court system.

Of that, less than one in five black residents trust the court system.

So there's an inherent distrust in the court system.

So the amount of orders of protection in cases that there are in the court system is probably minimal to what's actually happening to the communities because people do not trust the system to safeguard them, nor will they come forward.

Next slide.

So there's an urgent need for transparency, and this is something that's thematic throughout the entire report.

After several months of requests, there still remains a lack of official court data for most of the points of the system.

I really want to thank Commissioner Decknan for all of her work and trying to get us these data points, and also some of the city council members who were helping as well.

This impedes the ability to validate much of the data shared by the respective agencies, many of which who have their own dashboards or their own data reports, some of which have conflicting information.

But really, there's no suburban Cook County data, which is something I know Commissioner Miller is really dedicated to get as quickly as possible, and that's something that really is lacking in Cook County.

We need to address that as quickly as possible.

The Cook County Court System, its programs and Odyssey are excluded from the Freedom of Information Act.

In addition, there's laws and policies that impede data sharing and collaboration.

So transparency is imperative to future reform efforts and to rebuild the trust with communities and vulnerable populations, but also just to attract new dollars, philanthropic dollars, partnerships, research.

The county is, you know, we've heard from many researchers around the country that it's a non-starter to work with in the state of Illinois and Cook County because of the lack of data and the lack of data sharing that is uh pretty famous kind of in those circles.

And so that's something we really hope to turn the page on.

Um Odyssey, I know this group understands the cost of Odyssey, and Odyssey should be very, you know, in a short capacity, ready to really produce first of its kind data and and information about the court system.

Um the court system is no longer paper-based, and it's ready for transparency.

Next slide.

So these are the systems that would not be currently subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Um, so the court system, the civil systems, pretrial release programs, probation programs, the GPS electronic monitoring that falls under the chief judge, and the alternative court program.

So it's not just Odyssey, it's these enormous programs, some of the largest in the country.

Next slide.

Um executive recommendation number one is to legislate transparency, and that's the top of our legislative agenda, and it's something that we'll be pursuing downstate going forward.

We love to have the support of this board.

Next slide.

These come out of civil, but also there's um criminal orders as well in these subsets.

Next slide.

So just to give a brief overview of protective orders in Illinois, there's five different types legislatively.

Umergency orders of protection, domestic violence orders of protection are are most thematic throughout the report.

Um, but there's also four other types, um, including firearm restraining orders, which is something that is um grossly underutilized in terms of the data.

The data we received this week, if if it's correct, there's only been two in the last 18 months filed across the country.

So there needs to be a lot of work coalescing around that.

That FROs is what they're called.

Workplace protection restraining orders, as we're seeing more violent crime happening at workplaces.

So then once you get an order protection for almost all of those five types, there's an emergency order, an interim order, and then the plenary order is the goal.

That's a two-year order in most cases that the victim receives to keep the abuser away with remedies that offers protections.

In the clerk's data, less than 15% of cases ever received that plenary order in Cook County.

Next slide want to go forward.

Okay, so this just kind of runs through protective orders.

They're granted by the court, entered into the official court record system odyssey by the clerk, then transferred to the sheriff for entry into leads, then are entered in the sheriff's uh sheriff's internal database, and then ready for service by the sheriff.

Um just this process alone is paper-based.

There's been issues, there's been reports of baskets of orders of protection found, um, and it's something that really is a county specific recommendation that needs to be looked at to automate that process and to figure out how those systems can work together.

Um there are remedies that the court may impose, um, including exclusive possession of a residence, the return of a minor, um, and the prohibition of abuse.

And so that's it's really important that law enforcement that have the ability to understand those remedies and enforce those remedies of an order are who are serving um orders of protection.

Um it's hard to do uh exclusive possession of a residence at a traffic stop.

Um so in terms of who's being served, there's a there's a hierarchy due to these remedies.

Um if the order is served to the respondent by the sheriff by the judge or via short form notification, which local law enforcement can do, leads is updated, and then the order can be enforced for so violations can then result in criminal charges.

Next slide.

Um which brings us to warrants.

So the clerk of the circuit court had previously shared that there's 72,000 active warrants.

Um in 2019, there were reported 63,930 the last time it was reported.

Um arrest warrants issued to the court system are transferred to the sheriff to be input into leads and then to enforce the arrest.

Orders missing or with incorrect dates of birth uh cannot be entered into leads, same with orders of protection.

All police agencies must be able to make arrests during a leads check.

Um for many years, arrest warrants have been the number one cause for arrest by CPD, with over 7,500 reported in 2024.

So there's an estimate of 25% of all warrants were for domestic related cases where the domestic charge was the lead charge for the warrant.

Next slide.

Um firearm retrievals is a major part of safeguarding a victim.

Um an order of protection is granted, the respondents for FOID card is temporarily revoked.

Um if they're not voluntarily transferred to law enforcement at uh service of the order, their minimal attempts to retrieve the firearms in the FOID cards.

Um in a sheriff's analysis, they found 84,000 FOID card holders never surrendered their weapons.

Um that was from 2024.

Um, Karina's law allows for search warrants to be transferred to local police to enforce the court warrants.

They are civil uh arrest or their civil search warrants, um so they have a lot of limitations, and local law enforcement does not have access to civil court records for the most part.

Um, and so there has been some limitations on enforcement of those orders.

Um, and I know there's working groups working on that uh currently.

Next slide.

So high priority data points.

Um, this is uh data shared with from the clerk, um, and also from the chief judge's weekly dashboard.

Um so basically, for since all cases since the pre-trial fairness act, there's been fifth uh 15% have had a warrants issued for failure to appear.

That's up from 13% last year.

So that number is starting to rise.

Petitions for uh for detention were granted about 14% of the time since the pretrial fairness act.

In 2025, there were 9,228 postcards sent to defendants for failure to appear events in domestic cases, and just about 1,400 warrants were issued.

From 2026, there are currently 5,000 active criminal warrants alone just from this year.

And so what that means what that means, just to kind of translate is the postcards is when someone comes, does not the defendant does not come to court.

The pretrial fairness act allowed for alternatives to warrants, including summonses and and other notifications.

Cook County set up a postcard process.

And so those postcards usually preclude uh a warrant if the defendant does not show up again.

Um what this is showing is just there's different symptoms here of a system that's just not functioning.

Um it's not functioning for victims, I should say, because if almost 10,000 people are not showing up for court, and then there's another um almost 1,400 warrants, that's victims coming to cases where the defendants are not appearing.

Um so that's something that really needs to be looked at and a lot of effort needs to be put into figuring out how to better um notify people for court and make sure that that number of failure to appears reduces.

Next slide.

Um so the next recommendation is an interagency data center, um, which would be have data system inputs.

So kind of in the in the absence of someone in charge or an agency that is uh provides oversight, this would bring all the different data systems and inputs together.

Um it'd be f following really similarly to the HIDA model, um, which looks at high-intensity drug trafficking areas, um, absent of uh federal systems, but this would bring together city, county, and state systems to triage orders, warrants, and for firearms, implement best practices and evidence-based tools, which right now is really difficult to do, especially for the civil systems, um, and really work to reduce victims, uh harm to victims in our communities.

So this honestly, the center would reduce violent crime overall in entire Cook County.

Next slide.

The next recommendation is an independent data dashboard.

So in kind of the similar context, um, put in different inputs from the official court records, um, tracking outcomes specifically for high priority orders but also court um functions across the board.

Um this will help guide future public safety efforts, um, ensure some accountability to all of those who have statutory responsibilities, um, and then also create data tables uh for further analyses by research partners, um, which is what most of the other jurisdictions have already and have had for many, many, many years available.

Um and so what that means is a research partner can download the data tables and do and investigate a part of the system.

And this provides another level of transparency, accountability, but also more funding flooding into the system to you know pilot initiatives and look at different um programming.

Next slide.

Um so in kind of the absence of a system, we created six points of contact.

Um these are the six points where we feel um people are at uh most risk where they're where they're dropping off, where we need to focus on resources and further conversation.

Um but this system is is not an evidence-based or research-based model.

Unfortunately, one does not really exist that crosses over all the different systems.

Um so this was something we put together after talking to so many different people and trying to track different cases through the system.

Unfortunately, a lot of the cases we're tracking were tra had tragic outcomes, and we're trying to start and work our way back from the beginning.

Um, and so these are really the points that we would like, you know, um to discuss in phase two and to uh look at for resource allocations and and further collaborations.

Next slide, which brings us to uh uh number four, which is an independent oversight committee that will look at these six points, but really look at the system and um how the city and the county and the state interact as a whole and provide a government, a governance structure.

And um Sarah can tell you more about her case, but there's lists that have been put together, say for GALs that everybody's heard about, or um there's processes for um reporting um different, you know, court appointed um lawyers, and none of that is transparent.

Um and for GAL say specifically, you know, a mother has to let the GAL talk to their children, and they have no idea how they're vetted, how they're approved.

Um, and there's been instances in the news where GALs have been removed and arrested for for crimes.

So I think it's something that an oversight committee needs to pull the lid back on and really bring in partners from across the city and state um to look at all of the the six points of the system um and to create um a model that could be replicated in other places.

Next slide.

Um so the executive uh recommendation number five is something that this um board has heard much about, which is the domestic relations court.

Um coming from you know, having some experience on the criminal side and with civil orders of protection, uh hearing about domestic relations court, I think um include myself, um I did not understand the the sheer volume of uh victims whose cases are transferred to the domestic relations court.

Um the data that we do have shows that it has almost as many victims or just about as many victims as criminal the criminal court um for domestic violence.

Um the lack of services once they're transferred um has you know caused harm and confusion.

Uh 20 to 30 percent of protective orders filed per day are for domestic relations cases, according to the clerk's data.

Um lack of court recordings and transcripts, which commissioner commissioner Miller mentioned, um has um you know uh resulted in a deep distrust of the system, but also from some of the legal partners, they'll explain that cases cannot go um, you know, uh through the appellate board.

There's other issues, there's legal issues with the lack of court recordings and transcripts.

Um and so that's something that really, really is truly important to focus on an immediate budget and um and to make these cost free.

Um the federal government charges $4 for an entire transcript, the county costs $4 per page.

Um so when you're someone like Sarah whose court transcripts might be several hundred pages, you can't even afford a copy of your own transcripts and for many um women coming through the system.

Um and then really to continue the the um reforms it costs to six point where government and victims um government interacts with victims and their children um to improve access to resources, services, and outcomes.

Next slide.

Um so this is from the Chicago Tribune this week, and it's just uh the quote that stood out the most is a system that consistently fails its most vulnerable users, undermines confidence in government itself, it must be set right, and city county and state leaders should begin implementing the task force recommendations without delay.

Um so with that, I just want to um uh reintroduce Sarah Brown kind of uh who initiated all of these efforts, and she's just gonna further describe her her own experiences at this point.

Well, thank you, um county board um for um your attentiveness.

I know we all have been here such a great time, but um I want to definitely thank Commissioner Donna Miller um for um just saying yes to hearing me um over a year ago um and just kind of uh really uh just hearing me.

You know, a part of um what we go through as victims, um, you know, we're talking about talking to four to ten different people within a 24, 48 hour time frame.

And um, you know, sometimes we second guess ourselves with who we share our stories with, who we tell.

Um so I appreciate um you.

So after um being uh in a open case for over nine and a half years, um, me coming to the board um to give my public statement on July 22nd uh was selfless.

It was just to really acknowledge that, you know, I've been going through this, um, but it was many others that um impacted me to say, well, I know I can articulate and you know communicate via email or you know, maybe approach someone without being so um angry.

Um I think I gave a comparison of um you know being in a um uh pressure cooker, right?

Um and you've been in something for so long, and they tell you to stay quiet or we can't talk to you, you know, those sorts of things, and and and for me, I thank you all for your patience.

I know um this has allowed others to come here, you know, throughout the months to kind of tell their story.

Um, but I think just giving sometimes eye contact relieves the person and and saying, okay, someone hurt me.

Um but yes, I um have been in my situation nine and a half years um court.

Um my why is my son because um for the rest of his life, um, his traumatic experience during his Thanksgiving state with his dad in 2024.

Uh we're watching him beat his then girlfriend, uh, said that I need to pursue this even more because now it's not about me.

I don't care about my career, I don't care about my business.

It's about keeping him safe.

Um, and so a lot of my challenges through the eight judges that has been appointed in my case these nine and a half years.

Um the travesty is is that not one of the court appearances were monitored, like recordings.

So each time I had to go before a new judge or tell someone about my case, it was retelling it and of opinion of their own.

Um and again, you know, for me, I'm a living it, so I wouldn't expect for someone just hearing it to say, okay, well, you're right.

Um, but at least take their time because it's so child involved.

Um, and so let me also add, I know you guys know my story, but you know, I share child with my abuser.

Um, and so that this process, um, because of what the court system is, it did feel like it was a re-victimizing um, you know, process.

Um, however, I am grateful and I am optimistic that the communication amongst these different departments.

Um, although I think some of the approaches probably felt different.

I do appreciate especially Kate Nolan times that I communicated with her via email or a conversation in passing.

Um this was not to bash judges.

This was to bring awareness.

And if you guys can't hear us, how would you know?

So for me, um, that has been strongly my why um was to put you know, really protect and advocate for my son and other people and their stories that you may never hear.

Um, but you have saved their lives and their children's lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Commissioner Lowry.

I'm so sorry.

We have one more one.

I'm so sorry.

No problem, no problem.

We have our partners here, and they're gonna talk about an analysis they did um throughout the court systems.

They did an amazing job.

They talked to a lot of different partners, um, advocates, survivors, and um they're gonna share more now.

Get out of your way.

Whoever's uh controlling the slides, it'd be great to bring those back up.

Um my name is John Buckley.

I am the practice director of Public Policy Lab Midwest.

And I'm Kelly Costello, uh, the founder of Impact Partners.

Um we work with uh government entities in the Greater Chicago area and across the US.

And there we go.

Yes, thank you.

Um next slide.

Uh we uh conducted qualitative uh research with uh people who worked in the court system and uh survivors to uh develop a set of findings, insights, and recommendations that we're gonna share uh with you today.

Um next slide.

This is uh just to explain the public policy lab is a nonprofit organization that works with government partners to improve public services for low-income and marginalized communities.

Um and so we're glad to partner in this work.

Uh we've conducted similar work in uh state of Michigan.

We've just launched uh just launched uh uh revised court forums for 1,100 court forms in the state of Michigan that are now designed for self-represented litigants to uh better navigate the court system, access justice, but also for digital court um e-filing.

And so we're proud of that, and uh I think that that was helpful in in doing some of this work.

Next slide.

And a little bit more about impact partners.

We do innovation work with government nonprofits and private industry.

Most recently having worked with the City of Hamilton, Ontario, through the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, where we redesign the residential development application process to increase access to affordable housing and then other projects have been working with different cities on early childhood education, community engagement, small business revitalization, and a few others.

On the next slide, this is just kind of a snapshot of what we did over the next uh the past several months.

Um we conducted interviews with a total of 19 people.

We visited the Skokie and Markham courthouses.

We spoke with frontline professionals from judges to leads clerks, counselors, DV specialists.

We also interviewed advocates and others that work with survivors through different nonprofits and spoke with uh educators in the space as well as survivors themselves to better understand.

And if you look at the next slide, sort of the overarching landscape, um, one more of the survivor journey, like what happens in the end-to-end process.

So if you look at the next slide, it's going to be a lot of detail.

But basically, from the moment that you decide to take action, what's what happens each step of the way?

What types of proceedings do you need to attend to, who do you interact with?

And you can see sort of a branch there.

The top part is the civil court process, the bottom is the criminal court process.

For this particular project, if we go to the next slide, you can see that we really focused on the civil court process to better understand what people were experiencing who decided to take action.

And really the first thing that we heard was the fear.

You know, you may have emotional connection to your abuser.

There's cultural norms like I stand by my man, I'm not gonna ever, you know, be the person that rats the person I love out.

Um, for people that who have to report their own children.

You can only imagine the emotional intensity of that of you know, sort of feeling like you're betraying your child.

And so that frequently can be a huge barrier for anyone entering the process in the first place.

Um legal advocate told us that you know victims have seven to eight occurrences on average before they really make it into the court process.

And one woman that we talked to, a survivor said she was left for dead, and really the police were like, you have to go to court this time, you will not be around to go next time.

And so you really see what people have to overcome to go through this process.

On the um other end of this first part of the journey is um 70 to 90 percent of petitioners represent themselves.

And that's kind of interesting in in the context of only 302 percent of those unrepresented victims actually secure a final order of protection.

Conversely, those who do seek out advocates or work with um attorneys, they have an 83 percent success rate.

So I think as we think about potential solutions and just increasing advocacy and support for people trying to go through the process, there's already sort of proof of concept that they're success.

Um if we go to the next slide, the other thing you'll hear a little bit about is sort of the complexity of the paperwork.

You get handed like 45 pages to fill out and just figuring out am I filling it out in the right way?

Um you might have to go to multiple places.

You start out at the clerk's office, then you might go to the DV area or to the advocate's office, then back to the clerk's office, and you have to file a criminal case, then you go to the police department for the police report.

So you may have to go to multiple um departments to get different pieces of paperwork, and it can be very confusing and overwhelming.

So that was another area where we heard from people that got overwhelmed, and it was difficult to make it through the process.

Also, petitioners were very um concerned about their own safety, especially around the 72 hours when the order protection is filed, but it really is an ongoing concern throughout the process.

Um of the advocates showed us an emergency order protection statement guide that kind of consolidate everything down to one page.

And that was hugely successful, not only to the survivors, but one of the judges we interviewed said, hey, when people come in and they've done this one pager, they're able to tell this clear, concise story that makes it easier for me as a judge to understand what they've been through.

And so any kind of efforts made around sort of streamlining and simplifying communication have been successful.

Um the next slide, um the one other thing that we heard a lot about were no show rates.

So you show up for the emergency order of protection, and Katie talked about the different sort of stages of orders of protection.

You may not realize that if you don't show up for one of those, your case is immediately dismissed.

Or it might align with when you don't have child care or when you have to be at work.

And so how do we um make it easier for people to show up to sub subsequent hearings?

Uh and then at the very end, you go through the whole process, and then there's the courts done, and then where what other resources?

Because in a lot of ways, as a survivor, your journey has just begun.

You you're putting your life back together.

And so, how do we help people sort of coming out of the court process to identify and access the resources that they need.

And then if we go to the next next slide, I'm handing it off to John.

All right, thank you.

So in the report, there's a in this uh section, there's there's a series of recommendations that we presented um previously.

And what we've done here is that we've synthesized many of those to bring them into uh digestible kind of project type um formats.

And so I'm gonna step through these four four concepts for potential projects.

The first one is on domestic violence prevention uh before people are every system involved.

Um second is around uh communication strategy for the courts that is care centered.

Uh the third is looking at revising the digital court experience for Cook County courts, and the third is uh uh enhancing uh supports for people going through this the process.

So if you go to the next slide.

We we've heard about how domestic violence is just such uh uh a challenge that is uh increasingly challeng difficult for not just partners but also families.

Um and we had this conversation with uh uh director of counseling service who said that if they could do anything, what they'd like to do is is is get a program into schools uh to talk about healthy relationships.

And so I think one of the recommendations that we're thinking about is before we ever talk about the court system, can we identify uh develop and pilot successful programs that are proven in in Chicago that we can scale up or that are elsewhere to uh reduce instances of domestic violence in the first place?

And these these may be things like education programs in schools around healthy, healthy relationships, and to be able to identify uh when a relationship is is is kind of going into a circle of abuse.

Uh and that could be in schools, but it could also be in in other settings for for parents.

Um we are also uh thinking that this could include uh voluntary abuser intervention programs.

Uh the public policy lab uh is looking to to work further on on that kind of work.

Um then uh the but it could also include peer coaching and support networks and read trying to figure out how to develop those for for those who are at risk of of violence or who have experienced that in the past, because we do know that isolation, social is so social isolation is a a primary reason why people are in positions uh where they can uh be um uh victims of justice violence.

On the next slide, the second concept is uh to implement a care-centered communication strategy.

And and really we heard over and over again and we observed through our uh site visits uh that uh survivor interactions with staff um information and court forms themselves can be inconsistent, dehumanizing and potentially combative.

And this is particularly true in in larger courthouses where the the design of those courthouses uh is a counter style situations and and we all know from from going to different counters over the years in our in our own lives that the types of interactions you will have at a counter is very different from being on a couch on a sofa with somebody.

Um so when you are at this vulnerable stage and situation, uh uh we are as much as possible looking to provide support to people to navigate them through the system and not have a combative experiences that will try and eventually lead them to to moving away from the justice system.

Uh one quote here from a survivor is just highlighting how that the process of going to the courts felt so transactional to them.

That was the word that he's transactional.

Um so as a response to this, we want to develop a care-centered communication strategy that really informs the tone of materials in throughout the DV courts um cases, but also provides training for court staff that is that is compassionate and that is uh understanding of of the dynamic of what's happening in front of them.

But in addition to that, to uh consider the court has designed that reduces uh these friction points that creates these kind of contexts for for transactional or for combative conversations or interactions.

This this uh this communication strategy may include what to expect visuals because we heard time and time again that we have survivors who are going through these processes that do not understand the processes that they're in the middle of.

Um and that is uh disheartening, uh confusing, and also ultimately leads to more people dropping out of the process.

Um addition to streamlined forms, because we as uh Kelly mentioned, there are the paperwork is is intensive, and uh there's there's absolutely a possibility to identify ways of making the paperwork easier to fill in and we've we've seen how some courts are advocates are already helping with that process.

So it is it's possible to make this easier.

Um the next slide, uh this uh we identified through this that there was uh real borrowers in accessing justice.

Um that is going to the courthouse in the first place, whether transport is an issue, or because uh child care or work um restrictions are kind of are stopping people for showing up.

Um but we do know the e-filing is an option.

However, when we when we uh did a site visit uh at Markham, we we saw the the the current court clerks um direct people not to the the e-filing uh station, but actually handed them paperwork uh and to kind of found that that was that was suggested that was the easier path.

Um and so we need to be thinking about why why is that the case?

Why is that the recommended path?

And we know that e-filing has uh notices that people can receive, so they're more likely to show up to hearings.

We know there's benefits to e-filing.

Um addition to that, uh, we also uh heard about survivors who had uh received notices for hearings, showed up to those notices, sorry, showed up to the courthouse, but hadn't noticed that what they what their the hearings are virtual hearing, and so apparently this happens quite frequently where people attend the courthouse but are to sit outside the court in the hallway because they were unaware that the because the communications are really written uh with uh with in-person in mind.

Um and so I think we can have clearer communication uh for that.

And so when the recommendation here is to re to truly, and this would probably not just for the DV court, but really for Cook County uh all together, is to re redesign that self-representing litigate digital journey.

Uh lookily the infrastructure is in place, virtual courts already in place, e-filing is already there, so much of the much of the investment is already in place.

However, there's the the journey and the experience and even just uh things such as accessing the the updating the Cook County website to make it easier to find where how where and how to file, um redesign the court forms so that they work uh in an e-filing capacity, um, and just improve overall communication processes um and the web portals where needed to make sure that the the accessing the courts via the uh online systems is just as easy as as paper-based.

And then the final concept here on the next slide is providing real-time navigator and wrap round support.

So we know that survivor resources are difficult to identify and are delivered radically inconsistently across across the county.

Um, and this is due to a number of issues around funding, eligibility rules, and and also the the kind of personal knowledge and um and emphasis of the advocates that is that is supporting uh the survivor.

And what we really want to uh look at here is identifying uh identifying this and coordinating uh resources that exist, and so that they that we can uh ensure that these are not transactional, that these are responding to the needs of of survivors and that they are uh, for example, um one item this may include is is emergency housing program for those around the 72 hours that they're uh filing an order of protection, uh, which is a very kind of nerve-wracking time, um, but it could also uh look at resource navigators who do more than necessarily what the what the advocates do are actually there as a handholding support um throughout the process and thinking about that in a really kind of compassionate uh interaction.

Um so I think these these recommendations taken together.

Uh and on the next slide, we kind of have a final wrap-ups here.

We're happy to take any any additional questions about about um about what we shared, including uh provide access to the journey uh to you all.

Thanks again.

Um thank you.

Um I'm not gonna ask any questions, I'll leave it to my colleagues, but I just want to thank you all again for the report, Katie as well as Sarah for your personal testimony, our partners at the uh presenting the data and the recommendations.

And I I just wanted to just make a point um that um there are other uh ways that we're gonna be able to use this data um not just here.

So I just wanted to bring to light just a quick story that happened in Ohio to a friend of mine who was um murdered by her husband who was a sitting judge and a former state rep, and murdered um in front of her children in their driveway, and she had an order of protection.

So this was in Ohio, and this was uh several years ago.

So it just reminds me of how this work has to be continuously done over and over and over again, and we can use data, we can use the information that's in this report to share across other uh areas, but definitely the pretty much the same issues that were identified from this report, one and being um quicker and faster uh orders of protection have to be granted.

That was one of the number one recommendations as a result of her case.

And um that this just shows you know it doesn't matter who it is, but thank you for taking the time to dig in deep and present this report in such a way that it makes it very digestible and it also makes it actionable that we can do something about it.

It might take time, but now we have a framework and guidepost to move forward with.

So I just want to thank everybody and I didn't thank Amy on my team earlier.

Amy has been tremendous in pulling all this together as well.

So I want to make sure that Amy Malinowski gets recognition.

Commissioner Lowry.

Chair, thank you very much.

Um let me first say thank you to Commissioners Miller and Degnan at Gaynor and Nanaya, uh, as well as our friends on the city side for your leadership relative to this really gut-wretching issue.

Uh want to acknowledge that.

I also want to say thank you to all of our brave victims who have provided comment or testimony today, uh, including my adopted sister, uh, Yolanda Carter.

So I really appreciate you.

Thanks to all of you for the presentation.

And I just have one uh question of clarity.

To date, has the task force focused on both domestic violence cases and domestic relations cases.

And if yes, could you just make sure for for myself and others who are listening, what's the difference?

Sure.

Oh, okay.

I'm gonna get double.

Um I will say your name again.

Oh, sure.

So Katie Dunn, Chicago 77.

The um task force looked at the system as a whole.

So we were here last summer, Commissioner Miller brought us all together to hear about domestic relations, and really what we found was you had to look at the system as a whole because people were just going through the whole system.

Um so what's happening right now, and this was a policy that was adopted a long time ago in Cook County, is if you come into uh domestic violence court and you need an order of protection, um, you can get that order of protection.

But if you have a child with your abuser and you need a child support case, um any kind of parentage, you get your case reassigned to domestic relations and all services are cut off or have been historically cut off.

But unfortunately, the other the kind of what has compounded a lot of uh I would say the kind of re-victimization that Sarah described is that domestic relations case cases are costly.

And you get a lot of attorneys and different resources assigned to your case.

A child's psych exam is 20,000.

A GAL, as we heard um last month, three, four hundred dollars an hour.

And many of these people do not have the resources.

So really what it is is driving victims back to their abuser because you can't afford a home, putting food on the table and tens of thousands of dollars in court costs.

Um we really want to look at it as holistically of how to reduce those costs, eliminate them really.

But also there's been some practices where people have been put in jail for not being able to pay court costs.

Is someone who worked on criminal justice reform that's offensive?

You know, so we really want to look at these cases.

Transparency will help, I think, root out a lot of those those cases that that are you know, they might not be the norm, but they are happening.

So one follow-up, uh please, Chair, and thank you for that uh clarity that you've that you've given me.

Looking at the recommendations of the task force, I saw some clearly outlined recommendations relative to the domestic relations division.

Are there clear recommendations relative to the domestic violence division as well?

Yeah, sure.

So one of the things is really these court recordings have to be uh in any courtroom with women and victims.

So domestic violence court has some court recordings available.

You can get a transcript, but not at the suburban courthouses that are hearing order protection um cases.

Um we were able to go out to Markham.

And I'll tell you the process was awful.

And the the confusion was the whole the whole courthouse was confused that we're to send anybody.

So I can't imagine how the average person walking in.

And so really like you know, it's very different from a police call.

It might be a neighbor that calls.

It's it's a lot, you know, there's a noise complaint.

But someone walking in a courthouse is is ready for help.

And so I think across the board the recommendations are how can we rebuild a system that is ready for that point?

Because it could take years before somebody comes in and wants to change and want to get an order protection.

It could take a hundred police calls.

You know, police can give out resources, that person might not be ready then.

They might not have even been the one who called.

But walking in a courthouse is a big step.

And right now it's so confusing.

And I just want to share one story, because this was just last week at a suburban courthouse.

Um I used to work from the sheriff's office, so I heard this from a friend.

A 78-year-old with two black eyes walks in, and she's shown to go upstairs to where the advocates are.

The advocates are not there.

She's told to go downstairs to the clerk's office to get the paperwork.

The clerk's office says we don't have that paperwork anymore, only the advocates give it out.

She goes back upstairs, she can't find where the advocates are because they're in kind of like around the corner location.

At this point, someone finds her, gets her a wheelchair.

She has been there for hours.

It takes her hours to get up and down the stairs three times.

And uh if this person who was just in between court calls himself, securing the courtrooms, did not get her that chair, it would have been a 9-1-1 call, an ambulance right out of the this courthouse, but also she never would have gotten the order protection that she truly needed.

You know, so we're just we're not looking at this case by case currently right now, and it needs to be because every case is different.

So one last thing, and and again, thanks to all of you for your very impactful work, and I certainly would be here in support.

Note also I serve on the Illinois Judicial Conference.

If there's any way through that service, I can help this work, just let me know.

Thank you.

We'll take you off on that.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh Commissioner McCaskill.

I just want to commend the committee for the work that you've already done.

It's um it is pouring out into the communities, even in the Fifth District, we had to start a subcommittee with some of the young ladies that are actually involved in court cases now.

One thing that derived out of that was um needing to have court escorts to take these ladies and walk with them.

And we just had um some people volunteer to do that just this week.

And I will tell you the confidence that it gave the young lady to even go, because she was fearful to even be in the same space.

Um it makes a difference.

So having these reports and having tangible uh information and data to support why we're trying to do what we do, um, it really does help.

So again, commend it, and I look forward to what you're gonna do on the federal level that's going to bring it h home here to Cook County.

Thank you.

Katie, I have one question for you as well.

Um I know that you said that there were courts and um the chief judge and like electronic monitoring that are unfoyerable, right?

So are there other counties, other jurisdictions, other um across the country that will that allows those courts to be foyered?

Yeah, so we're we're well known as the least transparent court district.

So why that was for historically was it was paper-based.

It took so long to automate, it's the second largest unified court system, enormous undertaking.

Um but now it's ready.

You know, and I think we're ready, and it the community survey that was done by by um civic committee by NORAC shows that there's more trust in local police than there is in the court system, almost double.

So it's it's overdue to now bring transparency and to share as much as possible.

But journalists, I don't know if they're still there, will tell you it's impossible to get any information.

So it's not just you know, the victim, it's everyone.

And so uh again, in LA County, which is a large county larger than ours, do you know if they have the ability to FOIA their unified court system as well?

Yes, and a lot of the court systems are structured differently, but most have had public dashboards for domestic violence cases, indicators like orders of protection for over a decade.

So New York, LA both have dashboards.

LA is known for their technology.

So you could, you know, leave uh jail, go into a hospital and a notification is sent.

So they're they're almost like in its own their own stratosphere, but most of the other jurisdictions have much more transparency.

We heard from a researcher, one of the most renowned researchers in the country on gun violence, and she said that researchers won't touch Cook County.

So it's it's something that really is something that I think we could turn the page on and in a couple of years be really proud of the systems that we're building.

Thank you.

Chair Daly.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

And again, I want to thank everyone for your testimony to the group here and the advocates said the concern that I have is when the advocates and you have testified that individuals who need we have uh contracts with individuals, and they don't have the are not responding or are not responding to placing individuals.

That's concerning.

So the other issue I would urge you, if you need anything in Springfield, I would say go to the veto session.

People will say things cannot happen in the veto session.

I went my first session, I went to the veto sessions, everything happened.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

And I think you have to be a strong voice.

Also, we have our budget coming up.

Any thing we could do, any electeds who are not cooperating, the c commissioners are going to be asking them, how can we and what can we implement?

We have spent billions in technology, and apparently it's not being shared.

So that is so any suggestions.

I know the commissioners will be part of it.

And I think it's a preliminary budget next next week.

And then the final budget uh is uh in October.

I would also urge you to reach out to the president's office, see how we could work together because so much of this is inner agency, just accepting it.

The fact that you had mentioned in one of the courthouses that they were directing individuals rather than doing e file e-filing, they wanted to do paperwork.

That's ridiculous.

And the idea that if you're in a criminal court, that that judge cannot ask, is there an order of protection issued in civil?

That should be hopefully you have your discussion.

I don't know if you've had discussions with the chief judge.

I'm sure Commissioner Miller will be a strong voice as well as all the women, everyone on this board.

This is an issue that we have the paperwork, we have the groundwork, and now we could implement hopefully the vast majority.

But again, Springfield, any legislation you need, I would urge you to go to Springfield.

And if they turn you down, then make it public.

Thank you.

Commissioner Morrison.

Thank you, Chairman.

Um, first and foremost, I want to, you know, share my appreciation with every survivor who's taking part in this process.

I have not shied away or hidden the fact that I myself am a survivor of domestic violence.

Um I've said that.

You know, going back to my first year uh on this board, um and you know, you know, I spoke more often about this uh as I was coming out of law school, but I I interned uh for our domestic violence courthouse uh while I was a law student um at 555 West Harrison, and that was an incredible experience.

And um I'm just you know, and I I don't want to diminish any of you know the work that was conducted, and I know that in your presentations you mentioned a focus on civil, but in neither presentation 555 Wes Harrison was mentioned, and that is our official domestic violence courthouse, almost the vast majority of all domestic violence cases happen out of 555.

Um and I do know that you know the domestic violence division has a judge assigned to all the suburban courthouses, so DV cases can be heard at those suburban locations.

I I assume, but I'm not as familiar that uh domestic relations probably has a similar program, but I'm just curious and you know, it makes you want to lead with a little bit of caution, just having had so much experience at 555 myself, why um that was not part of uh, you know, the conversation and or your presentation.

Sure.

Um so there's been a there's been a lot of task force that focus on domestic violence.

Really, when people talk about domestic violence in Cook County, they just talk about 555.

It's staffed differently, cases run differently there, but that's not the majority of the cases that you know, and 555 is not accessible by transportation to most women in Cook County, most victims in Cook County.

So the other thing is is not everyone does get an advocate at 555.

There's there's a limited amount of resources.

So as I mentioned before, with domestic relations, you could go to 555, like many of the survivors we talk to.

Um and you're and if you have an active child support case, you're told to go get it through your child support judge.

Or your domestic relations judge.

So it they do a tremendous job there, but this is a whole system, and it's just one courthouse that's kinda is split in the middle between civil and criminal.

It does not hear domestic relations cases, which is about a third of the orders of protection per day.

Um and where most of the victims are just because of attrition because those cases go on for eight to ten years.

So it's a subset of domestic violence in the Cook County courts.

I hear your points.

Um but I I I mean, just if we're talking about domestic violence, we need to to make sure that we're including everything that is encompassed within our court system.

And I know like it, you know, if it is a DV case at you know, five five five, those cases have to be concluded within six months.

Uh I know that every single one of their hearings is recorded.

Um so it's just not everything that has been shared in these presentations.

Gives the best representation of you know the difference between DR and D V.

And I I you know, I know uh Commissioner Lowry alluded to this when he was asking his questions, but you know, I and trust me, hey, I know we can have more advocates helping all of our survivors in all of our courthouses.

I I saw that as well.

And you know, we need more nonprofits who are helping individuals uh and survivors, but um I it's just I I do think it's an important aspect to see the whole picture.

And um so we did include everybody in this task force, but the rec recommendations for court recordings is under domestic relations, which does not have court recordings.

So that was a really specific recommendation was domestic relations court, court recordings and the ability to get transcripts um for free for victims and their children.

Court transcripts and court recordings are not happening in the suburban courthouses and DV, so we'd also like to have those courtrooms included in the next phase of of the technology implementation because basically if you go into Markham or Bridgeview, like we have uh a a case uh of a woman we've talked to who was in the news and she went in, she had multiple arrest reports, she goes into um Maywood, and she's denied an order after sitting there all day.

She gets home, her daughter's killed, and she's stabbed 17 times.

The sheriff's body worn camera caught it on video.

She while she was at the courthouse getting an order denied, even with multiple police reports, but there's no transcript to tell you why it was denied or what happened in that proceeding.

So it needs to be systemic, and that's part of the recommendations.

It's how do we build a system instead of a fiefdom at every single courthouse?

Because even what we've what we've heard from the chief judge's office is they're not in charge of the courtrooms or the courthouses.

So they don't vet the people coming in, they don't offer the the office space.

They they're not in charge of people are there or not there.

There's not an entity currently in charge.

Um, and so that's why this every single courthouse is kind of running differently.

555 is the best example, but it there's there's many other, there's a dozen over other courthouses they're hearing domestic uh violence cases that uh do not follow the same policies as domestic relate uh domestic violence courthouse.

Now you jumped from DR and then went to the suburban courthouses and mentioned D V.

Now, are are you saying that the domestic relations cases that are being heard in the suburban courthouses are not being recorded or D V as well.

So like order protections coming in later in the day are not recorded in the suburban courthouses.

Oh, so but the cases them okay.

So are you talking about when these are happening in off hours?

Like a later in the afternoon court call is when someone comes into a suburban courthouse in the morning, fills out an order protection, they're usually heard in the afternoon, those are not recorded, and there's not script transcripts available.

So those are D V and then DR courts also are in suburban courthouses and downtown at the Daily Center.

Domestic relations cases are heard countywide, and those are not recorded either.

I'd want to hear from I would want to get clarity from uh you know the D V courts on on if that's the situation in the suburban cases.

I would find that surprising.

Yeah, do you want to answer?

I see the chief judges, people are here.

Yeah, am I yeah?

Can you take to the mic, please?

Over there.

Can I call my committee that was supposed to be called at 115 real quick?

Go right ahead.

Go to the mic by the sheriff, please.

Madam Secretary, do you mind if I call uh which one is that, ma'am?

Asset management.

Ready?

Okay.

Uh the hour of one fifteen having come and gone.

I'd like to call the asset management committee to order.

Thank you.

Commissioner Aguilar.

Commissioner Naya.

Commissioner Britton is excused.

Commissioner Decknan.

Commissioner McCasco.

Commissioner Moore is excused.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Sure.

Commissioner Sean Morrison is excused.

And Madam Chair is present.

Ma'am, you are shy one for quorum.

Okay.

Well reconvene.

Thank you.

State your name and then go right ahead.

Sure.

My name is Renata Steele.

I'm the senior division attorney in the domestic violence division at 555 West Harrison.

Um working.

Oh, would you call it back in?

Don uh Commissioner Miller, can you recall it?

Uh Commissioner Aguilar.

Oh, we'll reconvene at the college here.

Thank you.

Oh, add him to the role.

Thank you.

Ma'am, I will add him to the role and now you can recess to call of the chair.

You do have a quorum.

Thank you.

Okay, start again.

State your name and no worries.

Sure.

Renata Steele, senior division attorney for the domestic violence division out of 555 West Harrison.

So just really quickly to clarify, so there are seven courthouses countywide that where somebody could petition for a civil protective order.

So 555 West Harrison is one of them.

We have five suburban courthouses and then the daily center, like Katie mentioned.

Um at 555 West Harrison, as Commissioner Morrison said, all of our cases, criminal and civil, have court transcriptions.

And my understanding, and I can verify later and get back to you, but my understanding is that the suburban domestic violence courthouses also have their cases transcribed.

The suburban courthouses are not specialized DV courthouses, so unlike 555 West Harrison, where somebody comes in and everything is about domestic violence or about protective orders.

When you walk into a suburban courthouse, they hear all types of cases, so the experience is a little bit different.

But with respect to those courtrooms in the suburban courthouses that hear domestic violence cases, my understanding is that those are transcribed, but we can confirm and get back to the commissioners.

Yeah, that would be new because in the case I mentioned, uh I know that multiple people tried to get the transcripts and they weren't available.

Yeah, and Katie, if you want to.

Oh no, I'm just saying to the commissioner.

Oh, sorry, yes.

And if you want to send me any specific cases, so like I can verify specifics.

I can't speak, obviously.

Sure.

Yeah, can you please verify us and send it to the chair so we can get it to the commissioners?

Verify and send that information back through the chair so that we I can get it to the other uh commissioners.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Renata, for that.

And is there you know, she's walking away.

You you need a you got another question for Renata.

I was gonna ask if there's anything else that has been in the discussion just since five five five has been so absent from the conversation that you think should be clarified?

Yeah, I know I appreciate it.

Um so I did sit on the task force, so I am I am grateful I did participate in a couple of those committees.

Um, I mean I think I I I think a lot of the recommendations are consistent with how we feel as a court system, and there is a lot of room for improvement for sure.

Um I generally just think that it's important when we talk about unifying and when we talk about um standardizing things across an entire county, our county is very large, and I do think that each community is unique.

And so I think it's important to also keep that in mind and think about the fact that all of our suburban districts in terms of the local resources that they include in terms of the way that they respond to their community is also important to think about.

So um, and I guess the only other thing I do, I don't want people to feel that 555 is difficult to get to, so we are right off the blue line, um, also close to the Metro.

Um and there are several buses, and there's six dollar parking behind the building.

I believe you have electric uh charging stations too now.

Uh not yet.

That's a countywide process, but yes, yes, we're waiting for them.

I knew that they were a comment.

Yes, okay I can't wait.

Thank you so much, Ronaldo.

I appreciate it.

Thanks.

And thank you all.

Again, I I don't want to diminish the work, uh, but I did put a lot of blood, sweat and tears out at 555.

So um uh honestly, we need to do more for all survivors.

Um I know that firsthand, and so um this work is incredibly important.

And again, I want to thank all the survivors who took part.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I want to first thank uh Commissioner Miller for your leadership and all the work that you've done in this, and as well as uh Commissioner Anayan and Commissioner Degan uh and our colleagues on this the city side, and want to thank all of you and the partners here for the work that you've done is really important and it's brought to light uh exactly what we need to do as a county to move this issue forward.

And and most of all, I want to thank the survivors and victims for the advocacy for for themselves and for their families and making sure that this issue is something that has been brought to light for the entire county.

And with that being said, I don't believe we have any further business or any other questions.

Uh so I'll entertain a motion uh to adjourn.

Um Lauri is the first, second by Commissioner Miller.

Um all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Uh all those opposed in the opinion of the chair.

Um we're adjourned.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chair.

Okay.