Justice

Join the Mass Pacer Postcard Campaign

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On this Friday, May 1, 2015— Law Day— the Smart Chicago Collaborative is joining with colleagues across the country to participate in “An Appeal For Postcards”.

We’re asking law students, lawyers, and anyone who cares about the law to write a brief note about why they think that access to PACER is important. Come to John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Court to complete a postcard and get your voice heard.

Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows people to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator.

There are a multitude of issues with PACER, many of which are detailed here at Yo.YourHonor.Org. PACER is a complex, cost-filled, and technically primitive system that unnecessarily impedes the free flow of information about our courts and our law. “This is about access to justice, about innovation in our legal system, this is about basic principles of due process and equal protection in our democratic system.”

Here’s our plan for Chicago:

This program is a part of our Justice program here at Smart Chicago. The beginning of May has had a long and proud history in Chicago, serving as a day of action and reflection about the role of the masses in society. We’re proud to be a part of this national effort. Please join us!

Law School, Night

Law School, Night

PACER Cards + Letters Campaign for National Law Day

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Pacer CupAs part of our Justice program, The Smart Chicago Collaborative, along with a number of friends from around the nation, is conducting a cards + letters campaign to ask Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois to look into issues with PACER, the system run by the federal judiciary that provides access to court dockets.

PACER is difficult to use, has a complicated and onerous fee structure, and is otherwise an impediment to the sharing of information about the decisions and actions of our federal court system.

The impetus for this campaign can be found in the text of “In re: PACER” by Carl Malamud of  Public.Resource.Org. Carl has long been a leading protector of the public domain and this pamphlet is a marvelous primer on the topic.

We are organizing our campaign around May 1, 2015. Among other things, May 1 is Law Day, which is “meant to reflect on the role of law in the foundation of the country and to recognize its importance for society”.

Right now we are searching for partners in our campaign. We are looking to connect with law schools, law firms, and regular residents of the district to write cards + letters and get their neighbors to do the same.

Are you interested in helping change the relationship between the people and their courts? Hit us up at info@smartchicagocollaborative.org.

In re: PACER homepage

 

Crime, Data, Justice

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I have worked worked with a lot of crime data from a lot of cities, going back almost 10 years. I’ve worked with hundreds of colleagues to get more crime data published, make apps based on crime data, and to improve standards around the publication of crime data.

Today’s story in The Guardian, (The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden ‘black site’) is a blockbuster piece of journalism that signals a very important day for those of us who care about this work. Here’s an extended snip:

The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site.

The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units. Interviews with local attorneys and one protester who spent the better part of a day shackled in Homan Square describe operations that deny access to basic constitutional rights.

Alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its investigation into Chicago police abuse, include:

  • Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases
  • Beating by police, resulting in head wounds.
  • Shackling for prolonged periods.
  • Denying attorneys access to the “secure” facility.
  • Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including people as young as 15.

A day like this makes me proud of what we do and the way we do it.

At Smart Chicago, we’ve never made a crime report app. In our Justice program, we focus on access to data (not just display), youth-led tech (rather than data-driven apps), and websites that delve into published and unpublished datasets about incarceration (so that we can go beyond the data handed down and try to see what’s still left behind).

I’m particularly proud of two justice-centered technology projects we’ve published over the last year, with our partners the Chicago Justice Project and FreeGeek Chicago’s Supreme Chi-Town Coding Crew. I think these projects are exemplary apps in a post-Homan Square civic tech world.

They don’t display official crime data. Instead, Crime and Punishment in Chicago focuses (like the Guardian story) on what *isn’t* published.

Crime and Punishment in Chicago

Here’s our description:

All over Chicago, every day, in every corner of our oblong city, people commit crimes. This project is an index of the data that documents these crimes and what, if any, response there is from the criminal justice system.

The documentation is immense. Some is published. Much of it is not. Our goal is to create a flat, simple guide to what is known and what is not.

We haven’t waited for data to hit the data portal— we work with hard-nosed people like Tracy Siska who get a hold of never-before-published conviction data through FOIA. This data is displayed in Convicted in Cook.

Convicted in Cook

Here’s our description:

This project is an analysis of five years of Cook County conviction data. The information was received by Tracy Siska of the Chicago Justice Project from the Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County through a request to the chief judge. We’ve posted a copy of that request here.

Each year, tens of thousands of people stand in front of judges at the Cook County Circuit Court, the largest unified court system in the country. Their offenses range from marijuana possession charges that result in low-level misdemeanor convictions to multiple murders that put people behind bars for life.

When a violent crime is picked up by the news media, it’s often sensationalised so that every minor detail is brought into the public purview. Meanwhile, the vast majority of convictions – mostly drug related – are given little notice.

This project will attempt to answer several questions regarding convictions in Cook County. Upon first receiving the data, it became apparent that the data was messy and incomplete.

Two projects that use technology and data to zero in on justice, not tech projects that zero in on crime data. As we’ve seen in today’s news, published an ocean away from the corner of Homan and Fillmore, the only way past messy and incomplete is more work. So: onward.

The Launch of Convicted in Cook

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Today we’re launching Convicted in Cook, a joint project of Smart Chicago, the Chicago Justice Project, and FreeGeek Chicago’s Supreme Chi-Town Coding Crew (SC3).

Convicted in Cook is an analysis of five years worth of conviction data received through the Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County by Tracy Siska of the Chicago Justice Project. The goal is to shed a light on criminal convictions in Cook County.

The project is part of the Smart Chicago Collaborative’s Civic Works Project, a program funded by the Knight Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust to spur and support civic innovation in Chicago.

cookcounty

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Continuing the Work of Expunge.io

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Smart Chicago was recently awarded a grant from The Chicago Community Trust to support Expunge.io. This grant, referred to as “Expunge.io Plus,” supports the great work already happening with Mikva Challenge Juvenile Justice Council, LAF, Illinois Legal Aid Online, Cabrini Green Legal Aid, and others, by increasing public awareness, supporting the work of institutions, and documenting the juvenile expungement application process.

Screenshot 2014-10-29 18.09.46

There are five main goals of this work:

  • Increase public awareness regarding juvenile expungements
  • Drive more young adults to the Cook County Juvenile Expungement Help Desk
  • Secure a fingerprint terminal to obtain a copy of arrest records at the Cook County Juvenile Expungement Help Desk
  • Provide project management services to ensure project completion
  • Research data management services to document baseline information in how young people’s records are used once they are disseminated. See a blog post on this topic: “Getting at the Root of Issues with Juvenile Records“)

Background

We know that juvenile expungement is an arduous legal process that prevents many young adults from applying to have their records expunged. The impact of having misdemeanors and/or other lesser forms of criminal activity easily accessible to college admission departments and employers may hinder high school graduates from obtaining advanced degrees or securing career opportunities.

While many records can be erased, people  who are eligible for expungement often do not initiate or complete the process because it is complicated, understaffed, and fragmented.

Expunge.io is an on-ramp for the expungement process that helps start the process of erasing juvenile arrests/court records by sending people to the  Juvenile Expungement Help Desk. The Juvenile Expungement Help Desk is a place where individuals can meet with an attorney who will review juvenile arrest record, assist with the necessary paperwork and provide additional legal assistance. Lawyers are all available to help eligible people file fee waivers to expunge their records free of charge.

On June 9, 2014, the Juvenile Court Automatic Expungement SB 0978 passed allowing automatic expungements for offenses occurring on or after January 1, 2015 and for those records kept with the Illinois Police Department. It does not remove records maintained at the local law enforcement agency, court clerk, or with the FBI agency nor is it retroactive. Here is a look at the Juvenile Court Automatic Expungement SB 0978:

Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Amends the Juvenile Court Act of 1987. Provides that the Department of State Police shall automatically expunge, on an annual basis, law enforcement records pertaining to a minor who has been arrested if: (1) the minor had been arrested and no delinquency petition was filed with the clerk of the circuit court; (2) the minor has attained the age of 18 years; and (3) since the date of the minor’s most recent arrest, at least 6 months have elapsed without an additional arrest. Provides that a petition for expungement may include multiple offenses on the same petition, if the petitioner is 18 years of age or older and when a minor was arrested and no delinquency petition filed or if filed was found not delinquent of the offense or supervision successfully completed, or the offense would be a Class B misdemeanor or lesser offense if committed by an adult. Provides that the Department of State Police shall expunge all law enforcement records described in this provision on an annual basis. Provides that the Department of State Police shall establish a process for an individual to confirm that all law enforcement records described in this provision have been expunged on an annual basis.

Flooding the box

Through this grant, Smart Chicago wants to drive more people to the Juvenile Expungement Help Desk. We call this “flooding the box”.  Expunge.io is one step in doing that. Here is a look at the strategies and work outlined in the grant proposal:

Strategy I: Increase awareness about the relevance of juvenile expungements and the purpose and limitations of the SB 0978 – Juvenile Court Automatic Expungements through community involvement

Activity I: Develop public awareness through direct community outreach. Smart Chicago will fund events to

  1. Drive young adults to the Cook County Juvenile Court Help Desk to obtain their arrest record and receive free legal help
  2. Host community level expungement sessions whereby juveniles can also begin the expungement application process
  3. Develop a texting campaign with Illinois Legal Aid Online. In addition, Smart Chicago will coordinate efforts with several partners to develop a marketing campaign to educate people about the expungement process using Expunge.io as the jumping off point. These partners include Mikva Challenge, Civic User Testing Group (CUTGroup), Illinois legal Aid Online, among others
Strategy II: Structure an enhanced service-oriented and efficient application process

Activity I: Secure fingerprint terminal to be stationed at the Cook County Juvenile Court
Activity II: Develop communication strategy to target young adults to apply for juvenile expungements and informing them regarding their application status
Activity III: Expand the Expunge.io website to provide additional information, better filtering system between juveniles and adult expungements, and improve the technology connection between applicant and free legal services

Strategy III: Provide project and data management to understand the expungement process

Activity I: Document the application process for general public and website distribution
Activity II: Manage the initiative and its network of partners
Activity III: Identify and document how expungement records are disseminated and what happens to data after a record is expunged

Crime and Punishment Release Party at FreeGeekChicago

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A couple weeks ago we had a party to celebrate our shared work with FreeGeek Chicago on the Crime and Punishment in Chicago project.  During the event, we heard from the people on the project team and got feedback on how the project can become even more helpful for community members, journalists, and policymakers.

I’m particularly proud of this project, because it takes a hard look at the gaping data holes we have in seeing the full cycle of crime in our city. I am very proud of the large cache of crime reports available on the City data portal, but I am mindful that we seem to be no closer in having a true understanding of the system.

In my work at EveryBlock, I was responsible for finding crime data in cities all over the country. It gave me a great window into the day-to-day reality of the data and the differences in what’s published. When we had the opportunity to partner with Tracy Siska of the  Chicago Justice Project as the main subject matter expert, and the community-based developers like Brian Peterson of the FreeGeek Chicago’s Supreme Chi-Town Coding Crew, I knew we had something special.

New 2013 CPD Ford Explorer Police Interceptor

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On the launch of Crime and Punishment in Chicago

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Smart Chicago Collaborative is proud to launch our latest Civic Works Project: Crime and Punishment in Chicago. This project is a collaborative effort among Smart Chicago, FreeGeekChicago, and the Chicago Justice Project.

Chicago Police Department Memorial at Buckingham Fountain

Photo by Chris Smith / Flikr

The Crime and Punishment in Chicago project provides an index of data sources regarding the criminal justice system in Chicago. We aggregate sources of data, how this data is generated, how to get it, and what data is unavailable. This project is a key way we are using the Civic Works grant to use data journalism to uncover the value of data and cover the stories behind the data.

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Tonight: Social Justice + Civic Technology

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There’s a lot of action in the world of civic innovation here in Chicago. Just today, Foodborne Chicago was the cover story for the Red Eye and the focus of a front-page news story in the Tribune and there’s a Wall Street Journal story highlighting some of the great things going on here in Chicago.

#DirtyDining: Food-poisoning tweets get city follow-up Health authorities seek out sickened Chicagoans, ask them to report restaurants

It’s fun to focus on the more scatological aspects of the work that’s going on. And lots of the work, while certainly helping people live better in Chicago, fails to directly address the lives of working people.

But tonight, at the weekly OpenGov Hack Night, we have a great opportunity to do that (and happens to be in food industry!) Here’s a note from OpenGov Hack Night showrunner Derek Eder:

The next Open Gov Hack Night is tomorrow, Aug 13th at 6pm!

Matt Bruce with the Chicago Community Trust and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United will talk about the US Labor Department’s app challenge for creating a smartphone app that integrates the department’s publicly available enforcement data with consumer ratings, geo-positioning, and other relevant data sets. More details here.

Food will be provided by the Smart Chicago Collaborative! Please RSVP so we know how much to get.
Social justice is where it’s at.