36 Inmates Waiting 5 Years for Trial in Chicago Area

Criminal Justice

36 Inmates Waiting 5 Years for Trial in Chicago Area

Posted Jul 7, 2008, 11:05 am CDT
By Martha Neil

Although backlogs have been reduced in recent years, there are 36 jail inmates in Cook County, Illinois, who have been awaiting trial for at least five years.

A total of 430 have been held at least two years without trial, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

The county, of which Chicago is a major component, has been working since 2003 to reduce the number of inmates waiting lengthy periods for trial, according to the newspaper. It says inmates who spent at least one year in jail prior to trial constituted 18.3 percent of the county's inmate population in 2003 and dropped this year to 13.7 percent.

A planned increase in the number of judges in the county's criminal system, from 40 to 45, is also expected to help reduce the backlog.

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Posted by Francis J. Catania - 2 months, 3 hours, 41 minutes ago

Notably absent from this “news” report is the fundamental cause of delay in criminal cases - delay brought about by the defendants themselves. There is a truism in jails that “so long as you are a pre-trial detainee, you are presumed innocent. Once you have your trial that is no longer the case.”
Posted by smitty - 2 months, 2 hours, 16 minutes ago

This looks only at the surface and not the reasons. There are now more judges but not more prosecuters, public defenders, investigators, in other words the resources to give every person charged quality representation and a fair trial. Are the detainees complaining or is the Sun-Times looking for something to complain about instead of looking at the real problems?
As to the comment above, its nonsense.

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