TheCircuit

Decoding
the Cook County
Court System

A data-driven collaboration to investigate and reveal how Cook County’s courts work.

The Charges

Bea Malsky, Jared Rutecki, Emily Hoerner, Forest Gregg, Trina Reynolds-Tyler, Jean Cochrane, Hannah Cushman Garland and Abby Blachman // October 22, 2020

A detailed breakdown visualizing more than 3 million criminal cases filed in Cook County between 2000 and 2018.

Meet the Cook County judge attorneys least want to appear before

Emily Hoerner and Casey Toner // October 22, 2020

Judge Diane Gordon Cannon criticized for verbal outbursts, a pro-prosecution bent and jailing of probationers for sometimes-minor infractions.

A veteran Cook County judge has been repeatedly blocked from hearing sex offense cases. Here’s why.

Casey Toner and Emily Hoerner // October 22, 2020

An unprecedented investigation of court data finds systematic effort to keep Judge James Linn from deciding sex charges after a controversial ruling he made years ago.

The history and harm behind Illinois’s criminal HIV transmission law

Adam M. Rhodes (Chicago Reader) // June 7, 2021

Injustice Watch and the Chicago Reader examined the origins of Illinois’s HIV transmission law, how Cook County prosecutors have leveraged it, and its impacts on people charged.