Cook County’s top prosecutor offers alternative to jail for Chicago teens accused of serious crimes
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office will launch a new pilot program offering an alternative to jail for teenage boys from the city’s West Side who’ve been accused of serious crimes.
The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved $1 million in funding Thursday for the program, which will provide academic and after-school support services to teens who otherwise may have been locked up while awaiting trial.
“Young people need structure and activities, and they also need a community that cares,” State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said in a statement Thursday. “This program builds on that foundation. At the same time, we must recognize the need for new approaches to address the stubborn public safety problem of minors who continue down a path of escalating violence.”
The program, set to launch in early 2026, will be limited to boys ages 13 to 17 who live in Lawndale and Little Village — two neighborhoods that have long struggled with crime. Participants will be required to remain in school and will receive 20 hours of wraparound after-school services aimed at addressing untreated traumas.
“The goal is to provide these young people with the resources necessary to break the cycle of crime and ultimately keep them out of the adult system,” Yvette Loizon, chief of policy for the prosecutors’ office, said in an interview.
“Children don't thrive in a carceral environment. That was really the impetus for the programming — what can we do to support these kids, to give them what they need, so that they don't want to reoffend and they don't want to be back out in the world committing crime?”
The bar for detaining juveniles is “intentionally high,” according to the state’s attorney’s office, but if ordered held behind bars, teens are completely separated from support systems. It became clear to those involved in the system that detention alone was not effective in preventing these teens from reoffending, Loizon said.
As a point of comparison, the state’s attorney’s office looked at 39 young people arrested in recent years in Little Village and Lawndale who would have been eligible for this program. In one instance, a young person charged with possession of a stolen car was later charged with attempted murder. In another case, a young person picked up more than eight charges in 36 months.
The program services will include cognitive behavioral therapy, tutoring, mentoring and opportunities for family members to get involved. They’ll be provided by New Life Centers for teens in Little Village and the Firehouse Community Arts Center for those in Lawndale.
While the program was designed for teens charged with “serious” crimes that could warrant detention, there are some limitations. The program will not be offered to those accused of murder, attempted murder, criminal sexual assault, aggravated battery with a firearm, or teens already on electronic monitoring.
Still, Loizon said, it's “not the easy group of kids.”
“This isn't the shoplifters or the kids who are doing graffiti,” she added. “These are the kids that are embarking on serious crimes and they're in danger themselves. We're not only interrupting the damage that they might do to someone else, but we're really trying to put them on a different path that's going to keep not only the community safe, but keep them safe too.”
The program isn’t diversionary, so participants won’t have charges dropped upon completion. The cases will all be heard and monitored by Judge Beatriz Frausto-Sandoval. Loizon said she believes demonstrating success in the program could have an impact on the outcome.
“What we hope is that if kids are putting in the time and the work on the front end,” she said, “it will mitigate their ultimate adjudication consequences on the back end.”