Illinois legislatively eliminates cash bail system with Governor J.B. Pritzker signing a sweeping criminal justice reform package into law.
Mr. Buckner said the legislation was the culmination of exhaustive research into the laws and practices in other states and countries. Under the new system, judges will be presented with evidence to determine what kind of risk releasing a defendant poses to the community and whether the defendant can be counted on to return to court. A judge will then determine if the person should be held in detention until trial.
The cash bail system will not be abolished until January 2023, giving court officials time to prepare for the new system, said State Senator Elgie Sims, one of the authors of the legislation.
The Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition, a group representing law enforcement officials across the state, said in a statement that the new law would hamstring police officers trying to do their jobs. The coalition said political leaders had discounted about 120,000 residents of the state who signed a petition opposing the legislation.
“This new law is a blatant move to punish an entire, honorable profession that will end up hurting law-abiding citizens the most,” said the coalition, which represents police union groups as well as the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.
Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, said he was concerned that the elimination of cash bail would make cities and towns less safe.
Jails have become de facto centers for people suffering from mental health disorders and addiction, he said. “The only way to intervene is to arrest them and bring them to jail, where you have the opportunity to sit in a cell and get some help,” Mr. Kaitschuk said.
The new law does not take into consideration the lack of resources for defendants who may be released into the community without access to mental health or drug counseling and “be a risk to themselves or others,” he said.
“I’m certainly not going to sit here and profess that the system is completely fair in its entirety,” Mr. Kaitschuk said. “But we completely threw the whole thing out here.”
Mr. Sims, the state senator, said the law would divert people accused of low-level drug crimes into recovery programs.
This will be interesting. I agree with the notion (and I think the police are over-playing their hype because they like being able to make someone cool their heels in a cell), so we’ll see how it goes.Report
“The Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition, a group representing law enforcement officials across the state, said in a statement that the new law would hamstring police officers trying to do their jobs. The coalition said political leaders had discounted about 120,000 residents of the state who signed a petition opposing the legislation.
“This new law is a blatant move to punish an entire, honorable profession that will end up hurting law-abiding citizens the most,” said the coalition, which represents police union groups as well as the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association and the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.”
How will this make it harder for police to do their jobs? How is it punishing their profession?Report
If they can’t count on pre-trial lockup for some non-judicial punishment…Report
Do you think “honorable profession” refers to their perceived role as Judge Dredd?Report
I think they do.Report
The police in IL are not at all concerned with the bail parts of this bill. There is new language on law enforcement use of force rules that has their panties in a twist.Report
They have no one to blame for that but themselves.Report
This is a moral thing to do. It will be attacked and the attacks will be obvious. The attacks will come from some cherry-picked examples of violent offenders who were released and commit more violent crimes while awaiting trial.Report
I think that “only a few people were killed” is going to need better arguments against it than “you’re cherry-picking!”
In practice, I mean.
If the only people who end up dead are poor, it won’t get much coverage and so doesn’t matter that much.Report
And everyone will utterly ignore that the DA can make a case for having keeping the person in detention, and whether or not the DA did just that.Report
NJ got rid of cash bail a few years ago. NJ still seems to exist and be doing fine. I’ll will likely do fine also. Good for them.Report
It all depends on how the judiciary handles it. At some point they’re going to release someone who then goes out and does something terrible. If that results in a public backlash expect virtually everyone to be deemed a risk to the community.Report
Fixed it for you.Report
In theory, I like the idea. Innocent people should not be in jail. The cynical part of me thinks that there will be significant overlap between people who could not afford cash bail and people who are considered too dangerous or unlikely to show up for trial.Report
Cash bail would be a perfectly reasonable system if everyone had middle class resources and life strategies.
The vast majority of people working through the criminal justice system aren’t that. You’d be far better off if you built your system around the assumption that most people on the docket are impoverished or members of the underclass.Report