Equity
Foreward
In January 2020, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office contracted with two independent consultants to engage the community on the topic of bail reform through a series of focus groups. This initiative was part of the Sheriff’s Equity Team strategy in 2020, which was funded through the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) grant.
The decision to center the focus groups on the topic of bail reform stemmed from the inaugural convening of the Sheriff’s Criminal Justice Community Council (CJCC) in September 2019, when the group expressed specific interest in addressing Lake County bail practices. Planning between the Sheriff’s Office and the consultants began in January and continued through July, and the initiative was ultimately completed in September with the submission of a report to the Sheriff’s office.
This summary was produced by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and is separate from the report authored and submitted by the focus group consultants.
Education and Training on Racial and Ethnic Disparities
In October 2019, a group of Lake County justice system stakeholders, organization leaders, and community advocates convened to form an Equity Team and define racial equity for Lake County as "a community approach to provide equitable treatment and opportunities to criminal-justice-involved persons regardless of race and ethnicity." This led to a renewed commitment by members of the Equity Team to address racial and ethnic disparities through data and community engagement.
Racial equity in Lake County is a community approach to provide equitable treatment and opportunities to criminal-justice-involved persons regardless of race and ethnicity.
Since then, the Equity Team has been hard at work undergoing trainings, grappling with data, and laying the groundwork by establishing group norms and shared values in preparation for the next big step, which is meaningful community engagement.
Racial composition of Lake County Population vs Jail Admissions
Lake County Population for 2018
Lake County Jail Admissions for 2019
Source: Analyses by Loyola’s Center for Criminal Justice Research, Policy and Practice of data provided by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Furthermore, for every one White adult in Lake County, Black adults were over 8 times more likely to be admitted to jail.
Equity Team in context
In 2018, Lake County was awarded $700,000.00 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge to implement strategies that address the main drivers of the local jail population, including unfair and ineffective practices that take a particularly heavy toll on people with mental health and substance abuse issues. To reduce the jail population safely, strategies were implemented at addressing: system inefficiencies, racial and ethnic disparities, and meeting the needs of those with behavioral health and substance abuse issues.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is the lead agency for Lake County's SJC grant, coordinating with stakeholders across the justice system on strategies to safely reduce the jail population.
As mentioned above, one overarching strategy of this grant-funded initiative is the Sheriff’s education and training on racial and ethnic disparities strategy, the Equity Team.
At the core of this strategy is the recognition that Lake County cannot reduce its jail population effectively without directly addressing issues of disparity and equity in the criminal justice system, thus making equity a key tenet of each strategy.
Lake County cannot reduce its jail population effectively without directly addressing issues of disparity and equity in the criminal justice system.
Community engagement
The progress of the Equity Team has been a two-part approach. On the one hand, a dedicated group of justice system stakeholders representing the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, 19th Judicial Circuit, Lake County State’s Attorney Office, and Public Defender Office have met monthly to learn about implicit bias, structural racism, and study data about the jail population. On the other hand, through the Equity Team strategy, a series of focus groups were conducted with community members in Lake County who have experienced the local criminal justice system.
The Equity Team will work with professional facilitators on engaging the community in the process of addressing policy change and working towards racial equity in Lake County.
Bail Reform Community Outreach Initiative Report
The Bail Reform Community Outreach Initiative (BRCOI) is a community-centered approach focused on introducing Lake County to the work of the Equity Team and the efforts being led by Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the Lake County Pretrial system partners.