Title
Joint resolution authorizing the acceptance and execution of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office to support Lake County’s participation in the Safety and Justice Challenge, the Foundation’s criminal justice reform initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails, including an emergency appropriation of $700,000 in Foundation grant funds.
Staff Summary
• The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office (LCSAO) has been awarded $700,000 in Foundation grant funds through the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support Lake County’s participation in the Safety and Justice Challenge.
• The Safety and Justice Challenge is a MacArthur Foundation initiative to reduce over-incarceration by changing the way America thinks about and uses jails. Launched in 2015, the initiative features a network of 25 active implementation sites that are focused on two primary goals: reducing their jail populations and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system.
• The grant term is for two years, starting December 1, 2023, through November 30, 2025.
• If grant funding for services end, and new funding is not secured, services will be eliminated.
Body
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office has been authorized to receive a foundational grant for our participation in the Safety and Justice Challenge by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a time period of December1, 2023 through November 30, 2025, in the amount of $700,000; and
WHEREAS, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office will use this funding to pay for full-time SAO staff, specifically a Law Enforcement Liaison and a Diversion/Deflection Coordinator to train police, public defenders, and probation officers about how they must now reduce their over-reliance on pre-trial incarceration and how front-end rehabilitation of a defendant is the long-term solution to cycles of crime; and
WHEREAS, staff will use a contractual data analyst to build a diversion and deflection database and will also engage in longitudinal studies of the participants and track the data around re-arrests over time; and
WHEREAS, the foundation grant must be formally accepted by Lake County and it is necessary to appropriate the grant funding.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by this County Board of Lake County, Illinois, that the grant awarded to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is hereby accepted; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that an emergency appropriation in the amount of $700,000 is hereby authorized for the SJC MacArthur Grant in expenditure accounts 101-3330080-51110, 74080, 74100, 74110, 61010 and 72830 with offsetting revenue in 101-3330080-45335; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the State’s Attorney shall serve as the project director for the program, and accurate records of all necessary grant compliance requirements shall be kept by the State’s Attorney’s Office.
DATED at Waukegan, Illinois, on May 14, 2024.