Incumbent Illinois prosecutor Kim Foxx may not have $4.85 million in campaign contributions from dear ol' dad like her top opponent Bill Conway, according to state campaign records the Chicago Tribune initially spotlighted. But by many accounts, she's doing exactly what she's promised to do to fight mass incarceration in the Cook County state's attorney seat she's vying to keep.
Up for reelection in the state’s primary March 17, Foxx is not only up against the son of billionaire private equity cofounder William Conway, but other Democratic candidates including former assistant U.S. Attorney Donna More and former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti. Foxx is the only person of color running in a county whose black and Hispanic residents account for just less than half the population, according to U.S. census figures.
Her Conviction Integrity Unit has overturned 95 convictions, bolstering Illinois to the top of the nation in exonerations following a Chicago police corruption scandal, and she has declined to prosecute more than 5,000 cases consisting of mostly drug possession and minor shoplifting charges, according to The Chicago Reporter and the Marshall Project. In short, she’s doing precisely what she promised to do, which is fighting mass incarceration by affecting a drop in the number of people who end up in jail on nonviolent offenses.
Meanwhile, Fioretti, who is endorsed by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, has picked his side in the war for criminal justice reform, and it’s not black and brown people. Conway refused to explain how his father’s connections helped bolster his firm to prominence, and More wants to roll back Foxx’s progressive prosecution work. "We must end the practice of categorical dismissals of crimes,” More told the Chicago Sun-Times. “For example, Foxx refuses to charge retail theft under $1,000 even for repeat offenders, putting Chicago in top five of cities for organized retail crime.” Problem is last time I checked families weren’t living in fear on Chicago’s South and West sides because of retail theft.
While that may be a top priority for white shoppers clutching their pearls on the Gold Coast, many black and brown Chicagoans have slightly different priorities. “Over the past three years, I have focused on prosecuting violent crimes instead of low-level offenses,” Foxx told the Sun-Times, “bringing greater accountability to police-involved shootings, leading on criminal justice reform to right the wrongs of the past, and holding the Cook County State’s Attorney Office to an unprecedented level of transparency.”
Incarceration rates dropped 19% with Foxx in office, according to a report WGN obtained from criminal justice reform advocates in July 2019. “Cook County’s CIU was involved in 31 exonerations in 2018, 26 in 2017, and 15 so far in 2019—far more than any other office in those years,” authors state in the report. “Its productivity is strong evidence of a robust conviction review process and demonstrates commitment to remedying errors.”
Several of her critics, Bill Conway included, like to point to the handling of actor Jussie Smollett’s case as evidence of incompetence. Chicago police after all, determined the Empire star faked a homophobic attack, and city prosecutors initially dropped all charges against him before later announcing six new disorderly conduct charges against Smollett, according to multiple media outlets.
“There were inappropriate contacts between Foxx and a politically-connected friend of Smollet’s family, a bumbled recusal by Foxx, and the sudden announcement of a resolution with no explanation,” The Chicago Reporter said in its reporting of the incident. The case, however, “fell within prosecutorial discretion and was completely consistent with (Foxx’s) policy of seeking pre-prosecution resolutions to reduce incarceration of nonviolent offenders,” the periodical reported. When asked about her office’s handling of the case, Foxx admitted she could have been more open—but let’s be clear; that standard for transparency is one she set. The Marshall Project reported:
One year into her term, Foxx did something no other state’s attorney had ever done: she released six years of data outlining what happened in every felony brought to her office, offering an unprecedented view into the decision-making of prosecutors and its impact.