Illinois and nationwide, Black and Latinx people are more likely to be incarcerated than white people. This disparity is identified as a significant driver in mass incarceration and results from over policing of people of color, who are more likely to be charged with more serious crimes, more likely to be pressured to plea and more likely to be sentenced to time in prison. The starting point for disparity begins with unnecessary interactions with law enforcement, that include the intensive use of surveillance tools in communities of color and higher rates of traffic and pedestrian stops for Black and Latinx people.
Systemic Reform and Racial Disparities - Lake County State's Attorney Candidate Questionnaire
Mary Cole
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Do you believe that people of color in Illinois and Lake County are disproportionately incarcerated? What role, if any, do you believe that the State’s Attorney plays in the disproportionate incarceration of people of color? What specific steps will you/your office take to reduce the disproportionate incarceration of people of color in your first term?
COLE: AWAITING CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE
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As State’s Attorney, what policies would you implement to address the other forms of racial bias that permeate our criminal legal system?
COLE: AWAITING CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE
Eric Rinehart
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Do you believe that people of color in Illinois and Lake County are disproportionately incarcerated? What role, if any, do you believe that the State’s Attorney plays in the disproportionate incarceration of people of color? What specific steps will you/your office take to reduce the disproportionate incarceration of people of color in your first term?
RINEHART: There is no doubt that people of color are disproportionately incarcerated and convicted in Lake County, Illinois, and the United States. (We must also be aware that VICTIMS OF COLOR are often neglected by the system too.) First, we need judges, prosecutors, police, and probation officers to acknowledge these disparities. So, the State’s Attorney must call out those who won’t acknowledge these disparities. I am proud to have done this (repeatedly) and to have started the first ever data dashboard that demonstrates (beyond all doubt) that these disparities exist locally. No leader of the Lake County legal system has ever done that. We need a commitment to data, an understanding of our history, and the courage to speak about this history. But these are just foundational points. By way of action, the State’s Attorney must engage in relentless analysis of the root causes of these disparities on a courthouse level and on a societal level – though the societal reasons are somewhat established: structural racism, over-policing, racial profiling, explicit bias, implicit bias, educational shortfalls and inequity, and economic racism. Locally, I have been proud to end the disparities in our diversion program. Before I was State’s Attorney, there were some years where zero Black defendants received diversion, even though 40% of felony defendants are Black. So, it is important that diversion and restorative justice is distributed equitably by the government. Diversion is purely in the discretion of the State’s Attorney’ Office. The State’s Attorney must work hard to ensure that employees (and police, if possible) receive DEI/implicit bias/cognitive bias training. We also need an aggressive training program to avoid racial profiling and a BRADY LIST that includes officers who demonstrate or express racial bias. We have doubled the Brady List and prosecuted police officers who have broken the law. We have indicted two police officers for harming a Black teenager and a Latino man – in separate incidents. These indictments have not been popular with local law enforcement. State’s Attorneys also have a moral duty to “right the wrongs of the past.” I am proud to have started a Conviction Integrity Unit to analyze a local system (Lake County) that has wrongfully prosecuted far too many innocent people prior to 2020. Moreover, we should acknowledge the role of structural racism with respect to pre-trial incarceration. I was proud to be one of only two State’s Attorneys to support the end of cash bail in Illinois. The distribution of wealth has occurred (because of) and in the context of explicit racism across generations. There is no moral justification to base pre-trial detention upon access to wealth.
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As State’s Attorney, what policies would you implement to address the other forms of racial bias that permeate our criminal legal system?
RINEHART: Aside from what I have set forth above, we will continue to engage in critical DEI training for prosecutors, victim specialists, and investigators. We will advocate for DEI training for police officers. We will add any police officer to our Brady List who engages in or expresses racial animus. We need to end automatic disqualifications for diversion programs. We also will continue to conduct training for individual police departments when there is a violation of the 4th, 5th, or 6th amendment violation. We will continue to use data (for the first time ever in the office’s history) to track whether some prosecutors or judges systemically cause disparities. Prosecutors are required to keep up to date demographic data in the new data/docket management system for defendants and victims. We must make sure that all victim counselors are culturally competent and that we have enough bilingual counselors and lawyers.