Today on the Chicago Justice Podcast we sit down for a conversation with Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell, Jr. to discuss the state of the administration of justice in Chicago and Cook County. Mitchell Jr.’s office employees over 650 staff and handles around 100,000 criminal cases, including both misdemeanor and felony, per year.

Mitchell Jr. unsurprisingly is a strong supporter of bail reform and a strong critic of both Superintendent Brown’s and Mayor Lightfoot’s attempts to point fingers at bail reform and its supporters for the increases in crime Chicago has experienced since the onset of the pandemic. There is little doubt that Brown and Lightfoot are being disingenuous with their finger pointing and are really just trying to skirt political responsibility for the crime and violence. Both of their terms in office have been packed full of finger pointing.

Their terms in office have also been filled with a continue the Emanuel administration’s efforts to get gun possession to be considered a violent felony rather than a non-violent offense it has always been categorized as. Mitchell Jr. discusses his theories as to why this push is happening and why the CPD switched at the end of 2013 from pursuing people that committed violent crimes with guns that than just those who possess guns. This switch is reflected in data released by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office that details that when this switch happened the CPD’s rate of clearing gun related felonies cases plummeted.

We also get Mitchell Jr.’s thoughts on the media’s reporting on issues surround crime and violence in Chicago, including bail reform, and the impact that reporting has on the administration of justice in Chicago. The media is in a tough spot as they complete with social media and alt right websites like CWB Chicago and others for attention. However, the media still fails pretty miserably at properly contextualizing violence and crime and especially how the crime and violence Chicago is experiencing compares to what is going on around the country.