Changing Court, Changing System (From Justice in Chicago, P 181-203, 1984, David R Struckhoff, ed. - See NCJ-95904)

• NCJ Number: 95908
• Author(s): S A Schiller
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 24 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A comparison of the Cook County, Ill. court system in 1974 and 1980 concludes that while actual reported incidence of major crime has leveled off and the quality of dispositions produced by the courts has improved, correctional programs are dismally inadequate.

Abstract

Without much real change in the crime situation and with increased resources to handle criminal cases, the court system in 1980 still appears overcrowded. Between 1974 and 1980, 82-percent more judges have produced only 7-percent more dispositions. The processing of cases, however, has changed radically during this 6-year period, and sweeping changes in the law have occurred. An Illinois law permitting a prosecutor to proceed by way of information rather than indictment in felony cases, the speedy trial law, and the legislature's enactment of determinate sentencing have all affected the system. An analysis of court data reveals a shift from a system preoccupied with overloads to one that is concerned with meeting more classical expectancies regarding case processing. It appears that an increased percentage of serious felonies charged are reaching the trial courts rather than being disposed of at preliminary stages of the than being disposed of at preliminary stages of the process. Guilty pleas have decreased in importance as a means of disposing of felony cases. Consequently, a greater percentage of court time is being consumed by trials, and the right to a speedy and fair trial is more available to defendants. Cook County is sending people to prison at unprecedented rates. This cannot be attributed to the new sentencing law, but is more likely due to the greater expedition within which criminal cases are processed. Any enhanced credibility of the case processing system is being lost by the continuing deterioration of correctional programs. Probation officers now have caseloads of 150 or more, and overcrowding problems have resulted in administrative awards of special good time allocations and early release programs.