Jail populations down, no change in failure to appear rate, analysis shows SPRINGFIELD – One year after Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate the use of cash bail, the impact on the state’s criminal justice system appears to have been far less dramatic than people on either side of the
Hearings have been longer, more deliberative – resembling federal detention proceedings.
It’s been two years since the Pretrial Fairness Act was passed, but questions remain on who will be jailed and who will not.
A law abolishing cash bail will take effect in Illinois on Sept. 18. The change makes Illinois the first state to eliminate the practice and a nationally watched testing ground for whether such a change can work.
Public defenders, while supportive of reform, anticipate major workload increases.
Illinois is set to become the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail after the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a landmark criminal justice reform law did not violate the state’s constitution. The high court said the law should now go into effect in September.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis delivered the court’s opinion, approved 5-2, saying that the constitution “does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public.”
Republican lawmakers across the country are pushing to increase the use of cash bail and pretrial detention. Their efforts are a counter to Democratic measures that have sought to eliminate cash bail and ensure most defendants are released before trial in states such as Illinois and New York.
Bail will still end in counties that didn’t sue, containing about two-thirds of state’s population.
URBANA — The new Champaign County Public Defender takes over an office with many challenges, but Elisabeth Pollock thinks she’s up to the task. The Urbana native spent the last decade in the U.S. Public Defender’s office before taking the oath for her new office on Monday. Listen to this story here. In a wide
Dems claim electoral mandate for broad criminal justice reform, GOP claims they’re ‘frozen out’ SPRINGFIELD – Changes may yet come to the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform before its Jan. 1 effective date, but some of its major proponents in the General Assembly said the results of the Nov. 8 general election have signified that
Governor JB Pritzker signed the SAFE-T Act into law in 2021. On January 1, 2023, the Act will end cash bail in Illinois. In a cash bail system, the ability to pay bail determines if a person is released or remains in jail after an arrest. Illinois Republicans are warning that New York’s bail reform,
SPRINGFIELD – Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, cash bail will be abolished in Illinois. The measure that will eliminate it has been on the books since early 2021, giving the justice system two years to plan for the major overhaul of the state’s pretrial detention system. It’s also given time for the measure to become politicized
Michael Madigan’s Friend Dodges Questions About ‘Rape’ Comment In An Email Consummate Illinois Democratic insider Michael McClain dodged questions Thursday about an email in which he sought leniency for a state worker in a disciplinary case, having argued that the man was politically loyal and had stayed silent about “the rape in Champaign.” In his