At least Cathryn Crawford and Shobha Mahadev managed to get one thing right in their op-ed last week: Placing all Cook County electronic monitoring programs under the judiciary would bring our county in line with best practices statewide.
Unfortunately, the rest of the piece was a recycling of misinformation and studies that decarceration advocates pull out whenever they want to criticize any attempt to hold individuals on electronic monitoring accountable for their actions. As Cook County sheriff, I have the responsibility to keep our communities safe. Maintaining an electronic monitoring program that has been rendered powerless by the recent changes in legislation makes it impossible to do that.
Since Jan. 1, 2023, 226 new crimes are alleged to have been committed by participants while they were on “free movement,” the two days per week of statutorily unregulated movement afforded to everyone on the program regardless of their charges.
Last year, an average of 115 people charged with murder or attempted murder were on electronic monitoring each day, along with 114 facing sex charges, and hundreds more facing other serious charges including aggravated battery, vehicular hijacking and gun crimes. To be clear, these are not the low-level, non-violent offenses electronic monitoring was intended to serve.
Crawford and Mahadev are entitled to their advocacy positions, but readers should understand that electronic monitoring is a tool that can be used to manage a non-violent population. However, it does require management and accountability, and is not a simple program where you let people just run around all day. If you don’t want to know where they are, then don’t put them on electronic monitoring.
Thomas J. Dart, Cook County sheriff
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Chicago’s poor environmental record
Alex Peimer’s op-ed earlier this month appeals to all of us here in Illinois, but instead of pushing Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Pollution Control Board, he should direct his attention to the city of Chicago, where he lives.
City Hall’s Raed Mansour, in investigating air pollution and extreme heat, requested installing 140 sensors to monitor air throughout the city. But he fell in disfavor with one of Mayor Johnson’s allies and he was recently ousted. Environmentally, Chicago suffered from a lack of an environmental board under Rahm Emanuel, and now there’s more politics. Physically, Mr. Peimer is rightly concerned about his own health. Does he know that during the worst days of summer, Chicago will again be hosting NASCAR races downtown?
Fred J. Wittenberg, Evanston
CPS teachers don’t deserve raise
Chicago Public Schools teachers deserve a pay cut instead of a pay raise. Why should they be rewarded for failing our children? Until the teachers and their union are held accountable, nothing will change. It is shameful to keep asking for raises when you keep underperforming.
Mike Daly, Grayslake