CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — After eight sometimes-contentious years, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is walking away from the job. She would be the first to say that her feelings are mixed.
In her two terms as Cook County state’s attorney, Foxx has had some clear wins, including helping to bring an end to cash bail in Illinois and promoting alternatives to jail sentences for some non-violent offenses.
Foxx fought to eliminate cash bail before she was state’s attorney, and she said it was tough for justice reform advocates to win on that one.
“The struggle was getting people to understand that the system we had in place was not making us safer,” she told WBBM. “The moment you start talking about letting people out of jail, people instinctively think, ‘Well, if they’re in jail, they belong there.’ Trying to explain who belonged there and who didn’t, and telling the stories of the impact that it had on families and outcomes, was a lot of work that a lot of coalition builders [and] movement leaders were doing, that I happened to be a part of, and I’m really proud of.”