The Circuit Court of Cook County ruled in favor of the Rev. Harold Bailey and Probation Challenge Inc. last week, ordering the City Colleges of Chicago and Olive-Harvey College to cease the use of the “Probation Challenge” name.
The Circuit Court of Cook County ruled in favor of the Rev. Harold Bailey and Probation Challenge Inc. last week, ordering the City Colleges of Chicago and Olive-Harvey College to cease the use of the “Probation Challenge” name. The CCC evicted the program last year from its offices on the Olive-Harvey campus, although state law requires Probation Challenge to be housed on the grounds of the city colleges system. The city colleges also stated it had legal ownership of the program. “Probation Challenge is a partnership between the State of Illinois and the City Colleges of Chicago. We are the oversight authority of Probation Challenge,” not the Rev. Harold Bailey, the program’s administrator, Elsa Tullos, the spokesperson for CCC and Olive-Harvey, told the Defender in June 2008. On Aug. 14, the court ruled Probation Challenge “shall have the exclusive use of the name ‘Probation Challenge.’ City Colleges of Chicago and Olive-Harvey College, their agents, assignees, representatives and successors shall discontinue the use of the name ‘Probation Challenge’ effective immediately.” Bailey, the program’s administrator, was elated over the ruling. “I am greatly appreciative of the court for ruling in our favor. I am proud of the work we have done and even more proud that after 30 years we have saved thousands of youth from going back to jails and prisons,” Bailey said. Probation Challenge was the brainchild of the late Judge R. Eugene Pincham. When high school diploma-lacking offenders are considered for probation, electronic home monitoring or parole in Cook County, the court mandates they participate in the program. At least 100,000 men and women have enrolled in Probation Challenge since it began in Pincham’s courtroom in 1979, according to Bailey. Three years after its inception, the late Mayor Harold Washington lobbied for the program to move to Olive-Harvey. ______ Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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