State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx Recognized as Social Justice Ally
On April 27, 2017, Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx was presented with the Jane Addams Social Justice Ally Award, presented by the Jane Addams College of Social Work Alumni Board at their annual Alumni Celebration.
The Social Justice Ally Award is bestowed upon those who have advanced a social justice agenda consistent with the mission of the Jane Addams College of Social Work.
Ms. Foxx has recently been in the news for her efforts toward bond reform, to prevent nonviolent offenders from being jailed simply because they are poor and unable to post bond. However, her entire career has been one of public service.
At the Alumni Celebration, she addressed the gathered crowd of social workers, explaining how the discipline of social work has informed her approach to law and criminal justice. “I have spent my career at the intersection of law and social work,” she said, “and the many issues that permeate our criminal justice system.”
Forming a Broader Perspective on Criminal Justice
The foundation for her unique perspective was laid during the three years she spent as an Assistant Public Guardian, representing children in the foster care system. Ms. Foxx said, “This was the one place in our system in Cook County where social workers led what was happening in courtrooms, as opposed to the other way around.”
She continued, “It was the social workers who were talking about the issues that come from a lack of permanency within the foster care system, and talking about poverty as a condition that folks are born into and surrounded by, and the constraints that places on growth and development. That is what I learned, not from law books and not from law practice, but from social workers who schooled a young attorney like myself.”
Her focus on child welfare continued when she joined the State’s Attorney’s Office in 2001. “I made what was for many people an unpopular choice, and stayed in child welfare and child protection,” Ms. Foxx said. “For many people in the State's Attorney's Office, that’s not the assignment they want to have, but I signed on to do that work for four years.”
In total, she spent seven years in the trenches with child protection cases, and she was transformed. “It changed my world view,” she said. “Working in child protection gives you a broader perspective of our criminal justice system as a whole. There’s nothing more heart-breaking than seeing your former client now as your defendant, and seeing the cycles of addiction, poverty and disenfranchisement repeat themselves over and over.”
Her perspective on criminal justice was made even more encompassing when she worked as chief of staff to the president of the Cook County Board. In that role she was able to look “not just at the juvenile detention center and child welfare, but to look at our jail, the largest single-site jail in the country. And to look not just at the jail, but at the communities where those who fill our jails came from.”
The Need for a Social Work Perspective
“So I decided that I was going to bring that social work type perspective back to the State's Attorney's office,” Ms. Foxx said. “I wholeheartedly believe that the State's Attorney's office must be at the table and dictating conversations around meaningful reform for the criminal justice system on behalf of the communities that we serve.”
She observed that we’ve become adept at talking about the violence in some communities, but that is just one piece among many others which include high unemployment, limited access to education, and lack of resources for mental health or public health. She said systems that create unhealthy communities will inevitably give unhealthy results, and added somberly, “The fact of the matter is that it ends up costing lives.”
Continuing that idea, she said, “If there’s the notion that the State's Attorney's Office or law enforcement alone is going to solve the issue of violence in Cook County, it is a false notion and we will continue to fail. The only way we will deal with the violence in our communities is to acknowledge the need to have everyone at the table, to take a holistic approach, not just looking at individual defendants, but at entire communities, and the needs of the community to be safe and whole.”
“There’s not enough humility in the law, and not enough humility among lawyers, to recognize that we do not know everything,” Ms. Foxx also said. “We are charged with running systems, but the humanity of those systems lies with people who have dedicated their careers to the practice of social work, of engaging on deeper levels with the communities we serve, seeing the humanity, and developing solutions. This is what drives what I do.”
At the end of her presentation, Ms. Foxx paid tribute to the Jane Addams College of Social Work, saying, “It is humbling to be here this evening, to be part of an institution that has dedicated its service to students and to the broader community, to the criminal justice community and the child welfare community. It is an institution that enlightens those of us who have not had the benefit of being students here, and enlightens the systems-makers and policy-makers about the issues that we need to address.”
And, lastly, she offered heart-felt thanks to the gathered social workers for the work they have done. “I thank you for your service, and I thank you for your enlightenment,” she said, “and I look forward to working with you as we advocate on behalf of healthy communities here in Cook County.”