The Kim Foxx Effect: How prosecutions have changed in Cook County

November 3, 2019 12:55 PM

The state’s attorney promised to transform the office. Data shows she’s dismissed thousands of felonies that would have been pursued in the past.
posted by queen anne's remorse (10 comments total)

Fascinating article!

Our analysis of Foxx’s policies offers one quantitative way to evaluate what concrete differences progressive prosecutors can make, particularly because policy decisions have historically been, as Foxx said in a recent interview, “driven by anecdote.”

We started by focusing on prosecutors’ first opportunity to influence a case: felony review.

posted by Jesse the K at 1:22 PM on November 3, 2019

Great news on the criminal justice side, as well as a big step towards a necessary level of transparency through release of critical data.

Also, in other news: Oklahoma approves largest single-day commutation in U.S. history
posted by gwint at 1:30 PM on November 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

Are you trying to attract Trolls to metafilter? Because Kim Foxx brings out the Chicago area wingnuts who can't move on from the incredibly stupid L'affair Smollett.
posted by srboisvert at 3:46 PM on November 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

brings out the Chicago area wingnuts

Do they have $5?

I used to be a public defender, and I'm sad to see that some of my former colleagues are dead set against "progressive prosecutors" because they think it disrupts the adversarial system. Which proves to me that even well-intentioned people can be so wedded to the system they're fighting that they gain a stake in its perpetuation.
posted by 1adam12 at 4:42 PM on November 3, 2019 [18 favorites]

Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been reviewed.
posted by flabdablet at 6:43 PM on November 3, 2019 [8 favorites]

This is such a great, important movement. Here's some related material.

How progressive prosecutors can transform the criminal justice system.

and

Reform-minded prosecutors expected to battle entrenched local powers but the blowback has been harsher than anticipated .
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:07 PM on November 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

One of the most fascinating things to observe about the Smollett case, as someone from and living in downstate Illinois who spent his adolescence in Chicago, is that lots of downstaters, and downstate media, are obsessed, hatefully, by Kim Foxx. There's the usual downstate fear and loathing of Chicago, but I think that there's also the factor that fewer felony convictions probably also result in fewer convicts sent to downstate prisons, where there are several communities whose economies are tied to their local pens being filled. I don't think that many of the downstate people who believe, absent any evidence, that Foxx must be yet another corrupt Chicago politician could name any other Chicago-based prosecutor, with the possible exception of Patrick Fitzgerald.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:37 PM on November 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

From my perspective, the fact that Kim Foxx has been made the face of the Jesse Smollett fiasco by conservative media first and the mainstream media (who eventually always seem to parrot a watered down version of it, especially when it comes to reporting about Chicago not-in-Chicago) second is directly tied to the type of reform she wants to do. Until I saw Halloween Jack's comment, I wouldn't have thought about it so directly in terms of putting a kink in the hose that is the prison population pipeline but that makes sense (as someone who grew up downstate where getting a prison built in the 1980s was a big damn deal).

Same bullshit supporting the same power structures, and until we decide to storm our Bastilles or abolish the police, it's people in her position (and voting for them) that can make things slightly less unjust.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:51 PM on November 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

While Foxx was able to adopt policies to change how gun crimes or shoplifting are addressed, she has had far less leeway when it comes to the most prevalent crime in Cook County: drug cases.

Unlike most cases, police determine initial felony drug charges without prosecutors’ approval.

WTF? I guess I am not surprised, but how common is this, that police are made prosecutors for these offenses?
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:18 AM on November 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

There's the usual downstate fear and loathing of Chicago, but I think that there's also the factor that fewer felony convictions probably also result in fewer convicts sent to downstate prisons, where there are several communities whose economies are tied to their local pens being filled.

You know, there's part of me that knew this, but there's something about seeing the economics of hate laid out like that really puts a knot in my stomach.

Anyway, Kim Foxx is fantastic. I'm glad that some of the right people are paying attention, because the wrong folks sure are.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:06 PM on November 4, 2019