Persistence, determination needed to advance social justice in Cook County

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following, reprinted by permission, is a complete transcript of remarks President Preckwinkle presented for the Illinois Commission on Diversity & Human Relations' annual Remembrance and Celebration Dinner in Hoffman Estates on Thursday, Jan. 12.

Thank you for inviting me to speak with you this evening. As an African American, as a history teacher and as a public servant, this holiday gives me great pride.

I'm a great admirer of Dr. King, more so as I've gotten older. That's true for several reasons.

Dr. King was a tremendous leader. He was an organizer and organizing, as anyone who has done it will tell you, requires great patience and determination. It's almost always easier to do nothing than to act.

But the civil rights movement spawned many heroes - for example, Rosa Parks. There continues to exist a certain mythology surrounding her place in history - that she was a simple Montgomery seamstress, who in 1955, weary after a long day's work, spontaneously decided to refuse an order to move to the rear of a bus, sparking the bus boycott. But by the time of her brave decision on that bus, she already had established herself as an activist. She first tried to register to vote in 1942 and failed the literacy test. Literacy tests, based on detailed points from federal and state constitutions, were designed for failure. Rosa Parks finally passed in 1945, on her third try, by memorizing the test in its entirety.

The act that brought her to public attention was the result of a long - term commitment to equality and justice.

Her actions led to a 381-day bus boycott, led by a 26-year-old Martin Luther King, a newcomer to Montgomery, and helped pave the way to a November 1956 Supreme Court decision outlawing discrimination in public transportation.

The Civil Rights movement depended on an entire generation of such leaders. And there are the countless men and women whose names never appear in our history books - those who marched, who sat in and stood firm, those who organized and those who mobilized - their persistence and dedication helped bring about changes few thought were even possible.

It's important not to canonize our heroes and heroines. Sainthood is beyond us all, but a disciplined, principled life devoted to justice is not. Rosa Parks was extraordinary in a way that we can all emulate - because it was courage and commitment that made her so.

And it is precisely because Dr. King was a man of flesh and blood that he continues to inspire us. His life, his story, tells us that change can come if you don't give up.

As Cook County Board President, my responsibilities are primarily public health and public safety. They are 87 percent of my budget, the core of my mission and the intersection of some of the most challenging issues our communities face.

Every single day, we are confronted with the news that yet another family has lost a loved one - sons and daughters; mothers and fathers. There are too many weekends that are summed up by a tally of those shot and killed. I know we all agree these losses are unacceptable.

At the same time, the rising tide of heroin and opioid deaths is battering our communities as well, including many neighborhoods less affected by the violence. Both public health and public safety are challenged as never before. Gun deaths and fatal overdoses are the boldface type that can illustrate the deeper, more widespread losses due to addiction, the crime addiction drives, the violence symptomatic of unresolved trauma, and a lack of real jobs and opportunities. Ultimately, all of these issues and the underlying causes are a threat to our economic and our social health.

Throughout much of the region, crime and violence remain at historic lows, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics. But there are areas here in Cook County, as in the rest of the country, where violence and crime are in fact increasing. These are communities, which are both racially and economically segregated, where young men of color, traumatized by violence and poverty, lack opportunities for education and employment. These are the communities where violence flourishes. These are struggling neighborhoods which people are fleeing but casualties are still increasing. Victims and perpetrators are one and the same, and innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire.

Victims and perpetrators can be neighbors, and family members can end up in prison. Here, the vicious cycle of violence continues uninterrupted. These communities aren't just found within Chicago. In fact, the crime rates in some of our western and southern suburban areas are just as high or higher than those of the most dangerous police districts in Chicago.

And for those of you who don't call these communities home, remember that safety, much like health, isn't confined by any geographical boundary. It is as impossible to have a violent community and a safe county, just as it is to have a sick individual and a healthy family.

There is simply no way to address crime and violence without, at the same time, building more economically viable communities.

I've made no secret that, in order for our criminal justice system to be effective, it must be reformed - both in terms of how it treats our most vulnerable residents and how we allocate and spend our tax dollars.

This has centered on the need to reduce the overreliance on pretrial detention.

The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. Think about that - we put more people in jail than any other country. We represent about 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's prison population.

Here in Cook County, we have the largest single site jail in the nation. Contrary to most people's assumptions, the Cook County Jail is not primarily a place where we lock up violent criminals; and it is not a place where people wait to go to prison.

In fact, only 7 percent of the people in the jail are currently serving a sentence. 70 percent of those in the jail awaiting trial are accused of a nonviolent crime and they are detained because they cannot pay their bail. What I often say is that our jail is at the intersection of racism and poverty: 86 percent of those in the jail are black and brown.

As Cook County Board President, I'm not in the courtrooms or the tiers of the jail. I don't charge or defend; I don't pronounce judgment. My role has been, and remains, to advocate and raise awareness, to help shape sound policy decisions and to facilitate the collaboration necessary for meaningful criminal justice reform. A critical part of this is supporting and partnering with our criminal justice stakeholders and I thank them for their hard work each and every day.

With the support and assistance of the Illinois Supreme Court, and using an assessment tool identified by the Chief Judge, we have been able to provide more complete, current and relevant information to all parties involved regarding the risk and community ties of individuals going through bond court. In turn, we have been able to reduce the confined population at the jail by 25 percent over the last three years.

We will continue to work to reduce pretrial detention and address the racial disparities that still plague our system, despite the reduction in our jail population. We will continue to improve the bond court process, including implementing a long-overdue court date reminder program. Because, surely, if we can remind someone of a dental appointment, we can do the same for an upcoming court date.

While we try to make our criminal justice system more fair and effective, we cannot overlook what brings people into our criminal justice system in the first place.

We know that many of the people going into the jail or in contact with the criminal justice system would be better served with community-based solutions, including mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and job training.

We have to complement our criminal justice system improvements with effective community intervention and support.

One of the programs we've recently partnered with is offered by the Center for Companies that Care, a local not for profit, which has done a wonderful job of getting corporate partners to extend new opportunities to young people. They mentor and support hundreds of students in public schools from middle school through graduation. In addition to academic and social upport, they offer financial mentoring that guides students and their families through the financial aid and scholarship maze.

They offer a Career Awareness Internship for high school students. Students earn a stipend while exploring career opportunities that don't exist in the neighborhoods where they live and study. As a teacher, I have to admit that I was pleased to learn, that they are also teaching responsibility by holding students accountable their actions.

We asked them to include some students who have already had contact with the legal system. Students earned a stipend while exploring career opportunities they previously did not know existed.

This is not an expensive program - but it is an impactful one. Corporate involvement not only reduces the cost to provide the program, but gives it additional depth and diversity. This past summer our group of young men and women got to visit Baxter Health Care, Magid Glove, Power Construction, TTX, Fairmont Chicago, the Art Institute and the Nadler Financial Group, among other firms and institutions.

What we saw firsthand this summer is that justice-involved students preformed just as well the other students.

They engaged in discussions, asked great questions and were just as stunned as the other young people when using their cellphone during work cost them a chunk of their stipend.

One of my staffers sat in on a session for the students at a downtown hotel, which provided a tour, engaging speakers who described their careers, and a video of hotels around the world. The discussion went well until one young girl stopped the speaker in her tracks with a question.

"I see that you have beautiful hotels in beautiful places all over the world. Why did you build a hotel in Chicago?'

The presenter, a lively young woman from Great Britain recovered from her surprise and answered, "because this is a great city, a beautiful city." "No," replied the young girl, "no, not really. It does not look like the places in your video."

Chicago has been my home for over 50 years. I'm proud to be a Chicago and Cook County resident. However, there is a reason why I started my discussion about public safety talking about neighborhoods. We have communities in the city and county where, due to crime, violence and isolation, an alternate reality is being shaped for our young people.

We are committed to - and increasingly successfully - pursuing holistic strategies and additional resources to support these communities. We were recently awarded a $1 million federal grant - one of only six awarded nationally - to address youth violence in the targeted South Suburban communities of Harvey, Ford Heights and Robbins. We are partnering with the Strengthening Chicago's Youth program through the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, the Ford Heights Community Service Organization and a host of other stakeholders in these communities, to provide coordinated prevention and intervention services, including trauma-informed care to children, teenagers and young adults, ages 10 to 24, who have been affected by the terrible violence in our communities. We cannot alter the past but we can make sure these young people face the future with new resiliency. This is just one of the ways we are working to invest in health to address the impact of violence.

Public safety and public health must work together. For too long, too many health issues were addressed through criminal justice channels. But jails are not designed to be treatment centers. Furthermore, we cannot lock up everyone who needs treatment. It costs $612 a day to keep a person in our jail. It is far too costly - both for taxpayers and for the individuals who cycle in and out of our system without getting the necessary help to address their underlying health issues.

The Cook County Health & Hospitals System is critical in ensuring both the health and the safety of our communities. We now serve as a major provider of substance abuse and mental health treatment in the region.

Surely local, state and federal cuts to social service agencies have been felt in our jail and emergency rooms. We are implementing an ambitious behavioral health plan that includes expanding substance abuse treatment, integrating behavioral health into primary care and working to better link our justice-involved population to health care both during detention and post-release.

With valuable assistance from the Chicago Police Department, we have launched our first Community Triage Center in Roseland. Modeled after successful programs in other cities, individuals with behavioral health conditions - whether substance abuse, mental health or both - can to walk into the Community Triage Center, at any time, and get stabilized and connected to community-based services. We expect the CTC to further reduce the jail population, save financial resources and most importantly, provide these individuals with better outcomes. It also provides the Chicago Police Department with an alternative to arrest.

I've said all this so that we can see both the challenges we face as well as the progress we have made; so that we can use this day, not just to recognize his Dr. King's legacy, but to motivate our efforts for further change.

It's been over 60 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and Dr. King marched on Washington. And while we stand in a world far from perfect, just the fact that we have a day honoring Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, that this room full of people has gathered in honor and remembrance, speaks volumes.

But today, is not only about recognizing how far we've come but where we are going.

As abolitionist Theodore Parker said, and Dr. King made famous, "the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." But, at the same time, nothing in history worth fighting for has been easy. It doesn't bend of its own volition. It takes hard work.

Tackling the challenges ahead of us, such as ensuring the safety of our communities, improving our health care system, supporting the next generation, - require sustained, unified effort.

I've often said that casting your vote is only your first obligation as a citizen. But that alone is not sufficient. Good citizens must contribute their time to the causes and candidates they believe in; that's the only way we can keep our democracy strong.

And, in all honesty, there are going to be challenging times ahead. We have already seen rhetoric of ignorance, fear and hatred at a national level. We cannot let it turn into action. We cannot let it compromise our progress - when so much is at stake and we still have so much to do.

We still need persistence and determination; people who are willing to work for social justice, knowing that we may not see the change we need in our own lifetimes. The struggles for gender equality and the abolition of slavery went on for generations. None of this going to happen overnight. If we continue to work hard - and if we work together, our shared commitment to social justice reform can change our communities and our country.

Thank you.