Crook County

Content Warning: The source material addresses racism and racial inequity in the US criminal justice system. References to racial degradation, including the use of the N-word, and racial violence appear throughout the text.

“I was the only person of color in the room.”

The racial boundaries between defendants and court professionals are central to the practice of racialized justice. When Gonzalez Van Cleve started her research as an undergraduate at Northwestern University, she was struck by the racial homogeneity of the State Attorney’s Office. As the only person of color in her unit, she looked more like the people in the mugshots adorning the walls than her new colleagues. This observation alerted Gonzalez Van Cleve to the problem of racialized justice in America’s courts.

“In an era of mass incarceration, defined by intense segregation and racial inequality, our criminal courts are transformed from central sites of due process into central sites of racialized punishment.”

Gonzalez Van Cleve’s book highlights how court professionals, including sheriffs, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges, abuse visitors to the Cook County courthouse. Gonzalez Van Cleve ascribes this abuse to racial divisions within the court, namely, the division between the mostly Black and Latinx visitors and the mostly white professionals.

“The criminal courthouse is situated in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood with concentrations of violence, gangs, and drugs.”

Gonzalez Van Cleve emphasizes the role of boundaries in creating and maintaining racialized justice in the Cook County Courts. These boundaries exist even outside the courtroom. The Cook County courthouse is located away from Chicago’s affluent downtown, in a poor, largely Latinx neighborhood, a division that mirrors that of court professionals and defendants.