Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has instructed her office to stop diverting people with gun possession charges to the county’s Restorative Justice Community Courts (RJCC), which reroute people with nonviolent charges from criminal courts to an alternative program.
The move guts the RJCC caseload, 82.8% of which was dedicated to adjudicating gun possession cases, according to the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. Already the caseload has been cut in half, according to Judge Patricia Spratt, who presides over the North Lawndale RJCC.
Those who advocate for the restorative justice model say reducing the types of cases that are referred would cut back on the rehabilitation opportunities the courts afford to eligible young people. The State’s Attorney’s Office, which now has a new leader, says they prefer alternative approaches that move away from the peace circle model utilized by RJCC and instead toward gun education and a path toward Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) cards…