Cook County Chief Judge Announces Changes To Electronic Monitoring Program

CBS Chicago

January 29, 2026

Just over a month after Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach ordered an urgent review of the county's electronic monitoring program, changes are being made in an effort to more quickly track down violators.

Beach ordered a review of the troubled electronic monitoring program in December, after a man with an ankle bracelet was accused of setting a woman on fire on a CTA Blue Line train, after repeatedly violating his monitoring in the days leading up to the attack.

Lawrence Reed had been arrested 70 times before that attack, and was violating the terms of his ankle monitor and curfew when he allegedly set 26-year-old Bethany MaGee on fire as she was reading through her phone on a Blue Line train in the Loop. Magee survived, but was critically injured.

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