title
PROPOSED GRANT AWARD
Department: Cook County Justice Advisory Council
Grantee: Cook County Justice Advisory Council
Grantor: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Request: Authorization to accept grant
Purpose: To support the Cook County’s comprehensive systems reform efforts to reduce over-incarceration and racial and ethnic disparities as a Safety and Justice Challenge site
Grant Amount: $625,000.00
Grant Period: 1/1/2024 - 12/31/2025
Fiscal Impact: FY2024 $325,000.00, FY2025 $300,000.00
Accounts:
Concurrences:
The Budget Department has received all requisite documents and determined the fiscal impact on Cook County, if any
Summary: The JAC is requesting authorization to accept the final grant award for the Safety & Justice Challenge (SJC) as funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This grant award is for the Cook County Safety and Justice Challenge Capstone Project: Sustaining Pretrial Reforms through Community & System Partnership. The Capstone Project consists of an archiving project, PFA community engagement strategies, and technical assistance through a valued, non-governmental partner. These projects will build on the success of Safety & Justice Challenge strategies, strengthen interagency collaboration expanded through Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) implementation, and bolster community engagement infrastructure.
The Archiving Project is a multi-media approach to documenting, measuring impact, and telling the story of Cook County’s work to safely reduce the jail population through sustainable collaborations and innovative strategies. The Archiving Project will serve as a valuable tool for community and criminal justice agencies to understand the legacy of our efforts. The Community Engagement Strategies will be grounded in PFA and other court awareness campaigns that bring impacted community voice, advocates and providers into space with relevant criminal legal system representatives. Finally, technical assistance from a trusted, non-governmental, subject matter expert will assist and strengthen our ability to manage and build out the Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders governance structure and its workgroups, including the Capstone Project and PFA implementation.
Community Engagement strategies will also include paid opportunities for individuals directly impacted by the system to work closely with JAC community liaisons and Community Engagement Committee to support the SJC capstone work. Through the SCJ Capstone we will also increase opportunities for community dialogue using the Dialogue to Change model. The project will develop a standardized process for regular disparity analysis capitalizing on infrastructure such as the Criminal Justice Dashboard. We will work with our community engagement staff to create additional metrics that are meaningful to our community. Examples of quantitative data include the number of committees that include people with lived experience, number of dialogues held, and number of incarcerated individuals engaged in dialogue sessions. Data will be collected by the JAC staff and shared routinely with the community engagement committee.
end