FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE

July 18, 2023

 Ending cash bail in Illinois advances both safety and justice

Illinois - The elimination of cash bail in Illinois marks a significant step toward a more just and equitable criminal legal system in our state.

The Pretrial Fairness Act was passed by the Illinois Legislature in 2021 as part of the larger SAFE-T Act; it is the most sweeping bail reform in the country. In December 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court stayed implementation of the law pending its decision in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Act. 

This morning the Court issued the strongest possible decision upholding the constitutional arguments for eliminating cash bail. Per the court’s decision, the law will go into effect Sept. 18.

We were proud to stand with our advocate and policy partners, including the Cook County Public Defender’s Office and the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, to pass the law, which eliminates cash bail and replaces it with a pretrial system that serves the interest of both community safety and fairness. We were honored to foster open and fact-based dialogue in Springfield and with the public in the wake of a misinformation campaign that launched last year against the law. Now, with the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision upholding the law as constitutional, we are committed to continuing our joint work supporting its successful implementation.

The act removed the longstanding practice that allowed judges to order people facing criminal charges to pay a cash amount as a condition of release while their case is pending.

Money bond has resulted in thousands of people, disproportionately Illinois’ Black and brown residents, being jailed because they do not have cash to pay a money bond. This was a fundamentally unfair practice that caused deep harm, including job loss, disruption and trauma in families, and the destabilization of entire communities.

Under a new process created by the Pretrial Fairness Act, judges can detain people who are deemed a threat to safety or threat to flee. Importantly, the law creates a more thorough and thoughtful pretrial decision-making process involving a robust and individual hearing at which judges will review the facts of each case before making consequential determinations about stripping individual freedom and safeguarding the public.

At the same time, the Pretrial Fairness Act ensures that tens of thousands of people will no longer be detained in jail because they do not have enough money to pay the court.

Finally, it is important to note that multiple analyses and reports have concluded there is no link between the release of people pretrial and increases in crime. Jailing people who are presumed innocent because they can’t afford to pay, however, threatens to continue the kind of economic and social marginalization that perpetuates harms to individuals and neighborhoods.

A statement from the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice can be found here. A statement from the Cook County Public Defender’s Office is here.

For more information, please contact Annie Sweeney at annie@iljp.org.

The Illinois Justice Project was established in 2014 as a project of Metropolis Strategies, which was launched in 2011 by civic and business leaders to grow Chicago’s regional economy, promote sustainable development, and create safer communities. ILJP is a supporting organization of the Chicago Community Trust and is an affiliate of The Commercial Club of Chicago. We partner with more than 100 statewide organizations and policymakers. 

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