Key Findings and Observations Illinois
The year 2020 presented challenges to everyone, including MADD Illinois, which impacted the day-to-day business of monitoring DUI cases. Since mid-March 2020, many Illinois courts have remained either closed, or open to only essential personnel. Therefore, MADD was unable to be physically present in courts for much of the year. However, staff and volunteers were determined to still monitor many DUI cases throughout the state, to record this critical data that can provide an accurate picture of judicial and prosecutorial patterns throughout the state. With that in mind, staff and volunteers worked diligently to monitor cases remotely, sometimes through Zoom court proceedings, and to data mine and gather case information through online databases. It is MADD’s hope that courts can safely reopen soon, and staff and volunteers will be able to physically re-enter courtrooms across Illinois in order to continue to gather DUI case data and provide a strong presence in the courtroom. Despite the challenges presented to court monitors because of the global pandemic, Illinois staff and volunteers still managed to monitor DUI cases in 45 counties. Some counties had enough cases to represent a sample large enough to be included in the report, while others had smaller sample sizes. It is the goal of MADD Illinois to continue to monitor DUI cases in these counties, and possibly others, in the future so more data can be used to analyze prosecutorial and judicial patterns. The counties MADD Illinois court monitored either in person or remotely after the pandemic started include: Bond, Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Clay, Coles, DeKalb, DuPage, Effingham, Grundy, Henry, Iroquois, Jefferson, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Marshall, McHenry, McLean, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Ogle, Peoria, Pike, Rock Island, Saint Clair, Sangamon, Stephenson, Tazewell, Whiteside, Will, Williamson, and Winnebago.
In 2019, 314 people were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes which was 31% of all traffic-related fatalities in the state. 2
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