“(Mayor Brandon) Johnson is right that young people need support. But support without structure isn’t compassion; it’s abdication. The question isn’t whether to punish or support. It’s whether we’re willing to do the harder work of both.”

“For Chicago, the shocking crimes are noteworthy contributors to its tattered national reputation — fair or not — for being unsafe and for criminal-justice policies perceived as being concerned more with the rights of those accused than the interests of those victimized.”

“Officer Bartholomew would be alive today if this massively repeat offender of violent crime after violent crime were behind bars where he belonged,” said Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza. “No reasonable person breathing should think it’s okay to put an armed robber, carjacker on an electronic monitor and send them on their merry way.”

The program is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act through COVID-era federal recovery funds, which must be spent by the end of this year.