• Identification00065816
  • TitleDescriptive inventory of the Illinois Defender Project records, 1964-1976, bulk 1972-1974
  • PublisherChicago Historical Society
  • Language
    • English.
    • English
  • RepositoryChicago History Museum Research Center 1601 North Clark Street Chicago, IL 60614-6038
  • OriginationIllinois Defender Project Illinois Law Enforcement Commission National Legal Aid and Defender Association National Legal Aid and Defender Association--National Defender Project
  • Date
    • 1964-1976
    • 1972-1974
  • Physical Description
    • 4.5 linear feet (11 boxes)
    • 3 volumes (2 wrapped packages)
    • 1 oversized folder
  • Location
    • MSS Lot I
    • MSS Oversize I

Processed with funding provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

This collection is open for research use.

Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Gift of the Illinois Defender Project(accession #: M1979.0077).

Illinois Defender Project Records (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

Surveys, questionnaires, interviews, correspondence, notes, grant applications, reports, survey tallies, newsletters, standards, manuals, publications, and other records of the Illinois Defender Project, a project to improve the legal representation of indigent defendants in the criminal appeals process.

The majority of the collection consists of questionnaires, interviews, and statistical data from the Illinois Defender Survey, a statewide survey of appointed counsel funded by the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission (ILEC).

Also present are materials pertaining to the formation and operation of the Illinois Defender Project such as correspondence, grant applications, and reports. Includes also some materials related to the National Defender Project of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA).

The Illinois Defender Project was formed in 1970 by a grant from the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission (ILEC). The project resulted from a statewide survey conducted in the late 1960s by the Illinois Public Defender Association and funded by the ILEC, which found the need for changes to the criminal appeals process for indigent defendants.

The main purpose of the project was to improve the legal representation of indigent defendants, and the project was appointed to assist in approximately 2,000 criminal appeals during its three years of existence. The project created regional appellate defender offices in Elgin, Ottawa, Springfield, Mt. Vernon, and Chicago (Ill.), and, through the Illinois Defender Survey, collected and analyzed data concerning the status and needs of criminal defendants in Illinois.

The results of the Illinois Defender Survey were published in the report Criminal Defense of Indigents in Illinois, 1973 (1974). The work of the Illinois Defender Project led to the creation of a state agency, the Office of the State Appellate Defender, in 1972.

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Illinois Defender Project newsletter and the final published report, cataloged separately; as well as Illinois Law Enforcement Commission records.

  • Subject
    • Appellate procedure--Illinois--20th century
    • Defense (criminal procedure)--Illinois--20th century
    • Legal aid--Illinois--20th century
    • Public defenders--Illinois--20th century
    • Right to counsel--Illinois--20th century
  • Names
    • Illinois Defender Project--Archives
    • Illinois Law Enforcement Commission
    • National Legal Aid and Defender Association
    • National Legal Aid and Defender Association--National Defender Project
  • Geographic Coverage
    • Illinois--Politics and government--20th century
    • Illinois--Social conditions--20th century

The collection is arranged in four series

Series 1. Illinois Defender Survey, 1973-1974 (box 1-4, vols. 1-3)

Series 1 consists of questionnaires, interviews, correspondence, and notes related to the Illinois Defender Survey, a statewide survey of appointed counsel. Files are organized alphabetically by Illinois county and each file contains one or more of the following items: Illinois Defender Survey paperwork listing appointed counsel contact information, judicial questionnaires, states attorney questionnaires, public defender interviews, and notes. Potential respondents include public defenders, states attorneys, circuit judges, county auditors, private counsels, and others. Also present are three volumes of survey data: one volume contains statistical data derived from a National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) judicial questionnaire, likely results of the National Defender Survey; two volumes consist of handwritten ledgers containing tabulations of public defender and judicial questionnaire responses, likely results of Illinois Defender Survey

Series 2. Administrative records, 1970-1974 (box 5-6)

Series 2 consists of surveys, grant applications, correspondence, reports, questionnaires, and other administrative records of the Illinois Defender Project. Box 5 contains mail-in surveys (1973-1974). Box 6 contains a project narrative, grant applications, correspondence (1970-1974), monthly reports (1973), survey data tallies, county auditor questionnaires, proposed survey drafts, and other project records.

Series 3. Publications and reports, 1964-1976 (box 7-9, oversize folder 1)

Series 3 consists of drafts, reports, newsletters, standards, manuals, and other publications of the Illinois Defender Project, the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA). Included are drafts and a final survey report of Criminal Defense of Indigents in Illinois 1973(1974), and the Illinois Defender Digest (v.1-6; 1970-1972), both publications of the Illinois Defender Project. Also present is Guidelines for Action--the 1972 Criminal Justice Plan for Illinois(1971) published by the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission. Other publications include National Defender Project newsletters (1964-1970); 50th Annual NLADA Defender Association Conference materials (1972); The Other Face of Justice(1973); Proposed Standards for Defender Services (1976); An Evaluation of the Office of the Illinois State Appellate Defender conducted by NLADA, and an Illinois Defender Project Chicago office manual. Also present are three oversize posters with data tables illustrating project goals, response patterns, and summary responses.

Series 4. Index cards, undated (box 10-11)

Series 4 consists of tabulations for individual Illinois Defender Survey questions, including percentage of responses, recorded on colored 5 x 8 inch index cards.