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Chicago Residents Sign Up To Ensure Justice Is Served

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A career criminal is going back behind bars after citizens decided not to sit back.

Court Advocates Sign Up For Justice

Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) and others went as court advocates to the Cook County Circuit Courthouse in Skokie on Monday to make sure career criminal Jonah Kinsey got a full measure of justice for burglarizing a Gold Coast garage while out on parole on a weapons charge.

Smith says Kinsey decided to plead guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was facing six to 30 years if convicted at trial.

Kinsey, 53, has felony convictions for aggravated discharge of a weapon and burglaries dating back to the 1980s.

"We are actually forming a list in our office of people who are interested in participating" in a court advocacy program, Smith said.

So far 20 people have signed up, she said.

Ald. Smith said residents also saw that a woman was punished for beating a restaurant owner after trying to skip out on a bill.

As a first time offender, she got court supervision and was ordered to stay away from the restaurant.

The alderman says residents are showing they're not about to tolerate crime in their neighborhood.

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