Cohort 2023

Safer Foundation

Tracking Demographic Patterns in Felony Prosecutions Using Court-Watching Programs

Cook County, IL

Racially disparate outcomes in the prosecutorial process are well documented. Assessing what contributes to such outcomes is necessary for harm to be eliminated and repaired. Court-watch initiatives can discern and track real-time decisions that affect defendants in the prosecutorial process.

With Catalyst Grant funding, Safer Foundation, in collaboration with the Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice, aims to shed light on how the decisions judges make contribute to disparate outcomes for people of color in the prosecutorial process. The Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice will observe courtroom proceedings and focus on judges’ role to look for differences in defendant outcomes based on race. To compare these observations with official court records, the alliance will disseminate data-driven visual presentations of the nuances of judges’ decisionmaking to hold elected judges more accountable and inform community members of how judges’ decisions lead to racially disparate outcomes in criminal legal proceedings.