Reducing crime in Chicago with second chances
JaquanMoore has a steady job as a cargo loader at O’Hare International Airport. The 21-year-oldNorth Lawndale man also has a loving girlfriend and a young son, Maison. In 2019, itwasn’t enough. He sold cocaine onWest Side streets because, he tells us, he was “money hungry and greedy.”
Hewas selling in “KTown,” a rough, gang-dominated patch ofNorth Lawndale, when cops rolled up. Moore darted down a gangway and tossed the cocaine under a truck. The officers caught up withMoore and the drugs, and charged him with felony possession of cocaine. In a flash, he realized he had jeopardized everything— his job, his life with his family, his freedom.
Then, the following month hewas given something many young people on the South andWest sides never get: a second chance through a nontraditional court process. “I have a son. I don’twant to get incarcerated because of something I could have prevented,” Moore says.
An experiment in North Lawndale
Since 2017, Moore and more than a hundred other youngNorth Lawndale men andwomen facing nonviolent felony or misdemeanor charges have encountered a wholly different brand of justice at theNorth Lawndale Restorative Justice Community Court. Gone are jurors, judges’ verdicts, prosecutors, public defenders and prison terms.
Instead, the people harmed by the crime— the victim, the offender’s family, residents of North Lawndale— meet with the offender in a series of “peace circle” sessions to dive deep into the offender’s mindset at the time of the crime, and what he or she can do to repair the damage done.
Participants must be between 18 and 26 years old, either live in orworship in North Lawndale, and cannot have a violent offense or gun charge on their record. All nonviolent felony or misdemeanor offenders who meet the criteria are automatically diverted by the state’s attorney’s office to theNorth Lawndale court, though they can opt out and pursue their case through traditional court if they choose.
After the sessions, partici
pants sign a “repair of harm” agreement that often entails restitution and community service, and can include job training, counseling, drug treatment and parenting classes. The approach keeps offenders out of jail, and reintegrates them into their community on stronger footing.
When data speaks for itself
To date, 129 people have been assigned to the court— 63 have graduated and had their offenses expunged, 13 either didn’t comply with the program or opted out, one was killed in gang gunfire while going through the court process, and another 52 are in the program.
Does itwork? Recidivism rates tell the story. So far, none of the 63 individuals who have completed the program have committed another crime, says Cook County Circuit Judge Patricia Spratt, who runs theNorth Lawndale restorative justice court. “Even if itwere a handful (of recidivists), I’d still be happy because this is a lifesaving process,” Spratt told us.
Community buy-in is at the core of the program. Communities have to push for these courts to open in their neighborhood and then support them, and take part in sessionswith offenders. Ultimately, the community wins. Someone on awayward trajectory becomes a contributor rather than a detriment.
By all measures the program has been a standout success. But something’s missing. Growth.
Howto scale success
Two other neighborhoods, Avondale and Englewood, recently started up their own Restorative Justice Community Courts. Residents of the West Side’s Austin neighborhood are pushing for a restorative justice court in their community. They should get it, and county officials should weigh the prospects of even more expansion.
Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans has led the push for restorative justice community courts from the start. Other states have restorative justice courts, but Cook County is the only jurisdiction
in theU.S. thatweaves the community into the effort, Spratt says. Evans’ stewardship deserves praise. Now he needs to push the Cook County Board to broaden the program’s footprint.
The pandemic has put severe strains on every government budget, including Cook County’s. For 2021, the cost of running theNorth Lawndale court will be about $593,000, Evans’ office says. Included in that amount is payroll for “circle keepers” who oversee sessions and other staff, aswell as rental space for the court. When you consider that jailing someone for a year in an Illinois prison carries a $38,000 price tag, the case for restorative justice community court expansion builds.
What else builds that case? Demario Reed.
The appeal of fast money
Reedwas 19when hewas arrested in early 2019 on a heroin possession charge. LikeMoore, hewas dealing. He had just lost his job at Menard’s, but that didn’t matter. The money he made
selling heroin “was a substantial amount, more than a person makesworking 80 hours aweek,” he told us. Without restorative justice court, he faced the potential for jail time, and the harm that would do to his girlfriend and 2-year-old daughter, Lyric.
After completing the restorative justice court program inNorth Lawndale, Reed got jobs atMcDonald’s and in construction, and he helps out with his father’s pest control business. “It could have been that they look atmy background and decide, ‘We’ll throwthe book at this kid.’ And they chose not to,” Reed said. “They gave me a second chance at life, and I’m doing pretty good.”
Second chances turn lives around. And if enough lives are turned around in Chicago’s neglected neighborhoods, communities can begin to revive. Public safety is improved with less recidivism. Change, slowly, can happen.
Our message to Chicago and Cook County elected officials: Invest in programs thatwork— for taxpayers, for public safety and for defendants.