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Some West Side teens charged with serious crimes can now stay in school and out of detention while awaiting trial as part of a new pilot program by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and Chicago Public Schools.
To participate, teens have to go to school five days a week and take part in cognitive behavioral therapy, mentoring, and other services provided by two community nonprofits.
The pilot program is a nod to the key role that school can play in reengaging youth facing criminal charges — and, on the flip side, the havoc that stints in detention can wreak on their odds of graduating.
In recent years, there’s been a push to cultivate alternatives to detaining young people across the country, but also pushback to such reform efforts. Against that backdrop, the Cook County initiative aims to strike a balance between giving teens more support and holding them accountable: Their charges won’t be dismissed as they are in so-called diversion programs. Officials say it’s the first Cook County program that conditions pretrial release on regularly attending school and therapy.
“We’re hoping that these young people will continue being engaged in their community through school and the community-based organizations so they’re able to hopefully decide that they want to take a different path,” said Umi Grigsby, deputy chief of policy at the Cook County State Attorney’s Office.
Three teens have joined the program since it started last month with a goal of engaging up to 60 youth in the Little Village and North Lawndale neighborhoods this year. Its backers point to an oft-cited statistic from the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab research: About 90% of school-age youth who got shot in Chicago were not going to school at the time.
“By addressing the needs of this population, which often faces the risk of isolation, CPS helps to foster a sense of belonging and community to provide students with the opportunity to continue their education,” a district spokeswoman said in a statement.
Research shows school is key to preventing recidivism
The grant-funded effort drew some inspiration from CPS’ Choose to Change program, which provides intensive cognitive behavioral therapy and mentoring to students facing challenges, including involvement with the criminal justice system. It also shares these elements with Back to Our Future, a more recent program to reengage dropouts that the district put on hold amid recruitment and other issues and then restarted last fall.
Teens charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, or sex crimes and those who are placed on electronic monitoring cannot participate in the new program. Officials said they could not disclose what charges the three participants in the program face so far to protect their privacy.
A growing body of research has backed the crucial role of keeping teens engaged in their education, said Antwan Turpeau, a research fellow at Chapin Hall, a Chicago-based research center, which will evaluate the new program. School gives young people a structured day, positive activities, and informal mentors in teachers and staff.
“School is one of the top protective factors for this age population,” Turpeau said. “Detention often disrupts schooling and credit accumulation.”
He said he was glad to see a central role for mentoring and therapy in the new initiative, as well.
“A majority of these young people come from underinvested communities with a lot of community trauma,” he said. “They’ve seen a lot at a young age and haven’t had the place and the space to process what they’ve been through.”
Grigsby said the program is the brainchild of Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, with input from Jadine Chou, the school district’s former safety and security chief.
Teens are usually detained for 30 days pretrial, but sometimes spend longer in jail, becoming disconnected from school and neighborhood support. Burke’s office zeroed in on the 10th police district on the West Side, with a high incidence of juvenile arrests. There, Judge Beatriz Frausto-Sandoval will oversee participation in the program, called Juvenile Pre-Trial Detention Alternative Pilot Program.
As a control group, officials looked at 39 teens charged with serious offenses in the 10th district between September 2023 and August 2025. Fourteen were held in pre-trial detention, getting locked up more than 50 times among them in that period. The outcomes often weren’t great: Some went on to rapidly reoffend after their stints in detention, sometimes facing more serious charges, such as going from possession of a stolen vehicle to attempted murder. Some of the later offenses were committed during electronic monitoring or curfew supervision.
Officials hope the new program can keep teens out of detention — and out of trouble. Two nonprofits — New Life Center in Little Village and The Firehouse Community Arts Center in North Lawndale — will provide 20 hours of therapy and other services each week. Unlike in diversion programs, where the attorney’s office drops charges in exchange for participation in community service and other conditions, teens will continue facing charges. But successful participation in the program will factor in their sentencing.
Other CPS programs have also embraced behavioral therapy
The CPS spokeswoman said the attorney’s office will determine where and how the teens attend school. The district will monitor how they are doing. The teens participating in the program so far were all enrolled in school when they were charged.
The program’s backers looked at the outcomes of Choose to Change, which has been shown to reduce criminal justice involvement, among other positive outcomes that persisted for years after teens left the program. A strong emphasis on cognitive-behavioral therapy and mentoring are also a cornerstone of an overhauled Back to Our Future, which serves 58 students, most of them from Little Village and North Lawndale. Some of them have involvement with the criminal justice system, but that’s not a requirement of that program.
As part of the new program, Chapin Hall will track data on school attendance, participation in therapy, recidivism, and more; researchers will also speak with teens about their experience in the program.
“We’re really looking at lowering recidivism,” Grigsby said, “making sure that young people feel connected to their community.”
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
