>> Cook County has a new chief judge for the first time in nearly 25 years.

Judge Charles Beach inherits the nation's second largest unified court system.

And it comes with a little bit of baggage.

The office now manages the pretrial electronic monitoring system, which has come under scrutiny after some high-profile cases and court houses have been a focus of recent immigration enforcement efforts.

Joining us now is circuit court of Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach.

Congrats and welcome to Chicago in bank.

You club to be So you stepped into this role.

It has not changed hands since 2001.

What to do with this position >> I left private practice to get on the bench because they believed in the judiciary.

And I believe in the positive things that can do and as I worked my way through and had various supervisor roles.

I just thought being in leadership is the way you can further effectuate those positive things in the judiciary.

So that's a long road towards trying to make this a better county.

>> What was it about or what do you think it was about your sort of campaign the that might have resonated with the judges who elected you >> transparency, honesty, modernization.

I met with every judge that was once it out and talk to me and that several 100.

Yeah, absolutely.

It was.

It was a busy couple months.

A busy 90 days.

But of personal connection getting their thoughts and feelings on what we could do better, how we could be better sharing my vision of how we could be and that was the process.

And I think people.

Embrace that.

So.

>> You've said that you're concerned about immigrants being rested outside of courthouse is, of course, that is something Governor Pritzker is also concerned with having signed a law just this week against that very thing.

How do you plan to address safety interest for the immigrant communities who are interacting with the justice system here?

We currently have an order that was put in place by my predecessor, Chief Evans.

It's going to stay in place.

It's important that >> litigants, whether they be victims, witnesses, the accused.

know that they can come court.

The law is going to be there to support them.

And that this is a safe space for them to for the judiciary to work for our system.

A lot of work.

They need to be able to get to and from court and be active in court.

>> A couple of recent cases, of course, as we mentioned, involving defendants who've been on electronic who've either been kill, killed her killed or harm someone having drawn attention to the use of electronic monitoring.

What improvements do you think need to be made to the system?

>> So we're looking at electronic monitoring system that's currently under the office of Chief Judge.

We're going to analyze it you some data to take a look at what's working, what's not working and definitely try to tighten up our protocols like everything it can be improved.

And that's what we're looking to do.

>> Your office has suggested reinstating the practice of reporting escalated em alerts to the state's attorneys off.

It had previously recently been turned off because that office was concerned about the volume of alerts that they were receiving.

How do you plan on working with states attorney Eileen overcome this?

>> First we'll state's Trey Burke, I think is a great partner I'm looking forward to working with I was not part of those conversations.

I can speak to what happened there.

Didn't happen there.

What I can tell you is this is that we're going to look internally what we need to do to report better and work out a system with the state attorney to make sure that it's a factual for everybody.

Okay.

Been on the job for 6 days.

So it's early start, but we start working literally the day after the election.

My team and everybody else.

And we're going to continue to work full full speed ahead.

Can do everything right away.

although by tomorrow I expect you'll have everything done.

Done Do you think electronic monitoring, though, should it remain under the chief judge's per view?

Is that something that you've considered in in your pursuit of this job?

>> It is something I looked There is currently a statewide system run by the office of statewide Pretrial Services that services about.

>> 82 of the 102 counties in the state and operates their electronic monitoring program.

Certainly my committee as they review what we're doing here in Cook County.

We'll consider what the statewide division could do as well and whether it's better placed here are with them.

>> Okay.

And it used to be with the sheriff's Department.

Of course, it sounds like that's not necessarily an option.

>> No, I mean, the sheriff and absolutely the right to not continue that program.

Chief Evans took that program on and in evaluating as it currently and then make a determination whether states will also weather SPs can take it.

>> The Safety Act and the elimination of cash bail on also been in place for a few years.

Now.

What is your view on how that legislation impacts public safety?

So I was in the pretrial division when the Safety Act was implemented.

And I sat in that courtroom and I made those tough decisions every day for.

>> Almost 6 years, a few of those years under the safety Act it is a good piece of legislation.

I'm not in the policy business so I don't write legislation.

That's that's another branch of government that does that.

I know that this that my judges look at that legislation, they apply the facts to that legislation.

That law make the best decisions they can as far as changes are implementation or changes in the way it operates.

That's up to the legislature.

>> Judge, obviously there's many divisions in the Cook County courts, everything from traffic violations to child custody battles and obviously the criminal issues that we've already been talking about.

Are there any divisions that you think need the or have the most urgent need for modernization?

So juvenile, particularly the June all temporary detention center was a initial focus of ours immediately.

So we've dug in and started looking at that.

>> Also, the domestic relations in domestic violence.

>> Domestic violence court house in particular when I was a practicing attorney was a sleepy kind of courthouse.

There wasn't ton going on today.

You walk into the courthouse and there's people sitting in folding chairs in the hallways.

There's a lot going on in that building.

And so I think we need to look at that.

See what we can do to make it more efficient, perhaps take some load off the judges over there so that they can focus on, you know, the seriousness of what happens in that building.

And you mentioned juvenile as well.

What kind of changes do you think might be needed there or what it would you feel like you need your attention right away while gdc in it's been a hot >> point for a while we've been looking at it and the committee formed to look at it made recommendations which just adopted the other day.

We're going to implement was considered best practice is a scene across the country previously.

We had not been doing that, but we are going to do that going forward and that will involve new A new organizational structure and some moderate.

>> There's also, of within our quality in the court system.

Black and Brown residents disproportionately represented in the criminal legal system.

How are you working with other offices?

Cpd, again, states attorney to ensure fairness and equity >> first of I'm fortunate to have the stakeholders that I have to work with public defender.

Mitchell is a fantastic and I enjoy working with him very much 6 or of known for a very long time.

And her and I have a very open policy communication as I have with Mr.

Mitchell we're all working together make this a better place for everybody.

No matter where you come from, what are your station of life might be?

Our objective is make this the first judicial system of the country.

So it's an ongoing battle that something that you constantly have to monitor and improve and pay attention to.

But we're all doing that.

I think we're doing that together quite well.

>> It's a massive system as What do you think the challenges might be in sort of giving getting your arms around something like that to manage?

Well, yeah, there's approximately 2600 employees, not including the judges.

So it's >> major corporation for lack of a better term, just understanding where people are, what they're doing, getting your arms around You know, the chief Evans had been there for 24 years and he did a great job was there.

I'll have a different approach how things are managed and just because I'm a different person.

But that approach involves getting down, meaning the individuals.

I've actually so far, then almost every courthouse and that not only with the judges but the support staff, the social service workers, the probation workers.

My intention is to be seen by them to hear them and to try to improve the way they work more efficiently make them more efficient.

So they serve the county better.

All right.

Chief Judge Charles