The chief judge presiding over five Central Illinois counties plans to retire this year.
Casey Costigan is a Bloomington-Normal native who has served on the bench in McLean County since 2006. He was appointed in 2022 as chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit, encompassing McLean, Livingston, Logan, Woodford and Ford counties.
Costigan attended Central Catholic High School and Indiana University. He graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1991. After 15 years in private practice, he ascended to the bench, first as an associate circuit judge. The Illinois Supreme Court selected him for a circuit judge vacancy, a seat he subsequently ran for in an unopposed election bid.
Costigan heard major felony cases in McLean County for nearly a decade, including high-profile cases such as a 2018 triple homicide and a 2021 murder trial held without the defendant.
Costigan has served on numerous statewide committees, including acting as a judicial liaison implementing the Pretrial Fairness Act and the Illinois FAIR Act, two big-swing pieces of legislation transforming bail and public defense in Illinois.
He presides over the juvenile delinquency docket and serves as chair of the Juvenile Courts Committee among his responsibilities with the Conference of Chief Judges.
“Right now, I’m very invested in the juvenile justice system,” he said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “There is a severe lack of resources in the state of Illinois for juvenile mental health. This is a group to where we have an opportunity to make changes.”
Costigan said in the time he has left on the bench, he wants to do everything he can to tee up mental health and substance use supports helping to divert youth from entering the adult justice system.
“This is a group that we have an opportunity to have them listen to us and put measures in place to where their criminal involvement is done in the juvenile system,” he said.
Associate Judge Amy McFarland said Costigan will have a “lasting legacy.”
“All of us are behind Judge Costigan and all he has done,” she said. “His care and empathy, especially as it relates to this population, his support of our problem-solving courts and mental health issues. I think that many, if not all of us, are going to continue to push that forward.”
Costigan has championed problem-solving courts and other diversion programs in the 11th Judicial Circuit, which has garnered attention across the state. McLean County has the state’s only Family Treatment Court and administers drug and recovery courts, plus a circuitwide veterans treatment court.
“Problem-solving courts are excellent. They really are,” he said. “I would love to be able to devote resources to all kinds of problems.”
The county has floated the idea of a new specialty court for emerging adults, a population facing increased arrests as crime trends downward statewide. McLean County’s latest Behavioral Health Action Plan makes a specific recommendation for adding a problem-solving court for 18- to 25-year-olds.
Costigan said resources are the primary reason it hasn’t happened.
“Problem-solving courts are very labor intensive,” he said. “Problem-solving courts take an enormous amount of time and an enormous amount of resources that are stretched to the limits with the specialty courts we do have at this point. Even judicial resources are stretched, and we don’t put in the time that probation puts in, that treatment providers put in. And it’s still a tremendous amount of work for a judge.”
Costigan applauded the work Court Services is doing, providing specialized support for 18- to 25-year-olds on probation in McLean County.
“I think you would see our emerging adult program that we do have in place at this point in time is a leader in the state and cited as an example throughout the state,” he said.
Costigan's replacement will be announced later this year. His seat is up for grabs in November’s election.
