Illinois Supreme Court Halts Abolition of Cash Bail!

Illinois Supreme Court Halts Abolition of Cash Bail!

A day before this significant criminal justice reform was set to take effect, and the Illinois Supreme Court blocked the state’s elimination of the cash bail system on Saturday.

The most contentious part of the state’s closely watched SAFE-T Act, the Pretrial Fairness Act, which overhauls the bail system, was put on hold this week when a Kankakee County judge sided with the 64 counties that had filed to prevent it from going into effect.

“The propriety of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat,” Chief Judge Thomas Cunnington stated in his decision.

The ruling of Cunnington, which only affected the counties that filed the lawsuit and would have allowed much of the Chicago region to continue implementing the new law, was appealed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday.

State’s attorneys in DuPage and Kane counties asked the top court to issue a clarification order as the state appeared to be entering the new year with the old cash bail system still in place in more than half of the state and the new cashless bail system being implemented in the remaining 38 counties, including Cook.

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The Pretrial Fairness Act will not take effect until further notice, according to a state Supreme Court order issued on Saturday, “to maintain uniform pretrial proceedings throughout Illinois.”

The Supreme Court has not scheduled a time to hear Raoul’s appeal arguments, and it was unclear when the justices would take the case.

A court spokesman announced that there would be a hurried briefing procedure for lawyers to submit their arguments before the justices hear oral arguments.

In a statement, Governor J.B. Pritzker expressed his confidence that the act would be upheld as constitutional and his eagerness for the court’s assessment.

The Pretrial Fairness Act, according to Pritzker, “reflects long-needed measures that will make Illinois families safer and prevent violent offenders from being able to buy their freedom just because they are affluent enough.”

No immediate comment was available from Raoul’s office. Robert Berlin and Jamie Mosser, the state’s attorneys for DuPage and Kane counties, expressed their satisfaction with the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling in a joint statement. The prosperous and equitable administration of our criminal justice system depends on the equal application of the law.

The SAFE-T Act, which Pritzker signed into law last year and a portion of which has already taken effect, is a comprehensive package of criminal justice reform measures, of which the bail reforms are but one component.

Other initiatives include mandating that body-worn cameras be worn by all police officers by 2025, increasing services for crime victims, and altering the way inmates are counted when drawing redistricting maps.

However, the proposal to do away with cash bail proved to be the most divisive and would have made Illinois the first state in the country to do away with it entirely.

A person accused of a crime who posted bond to be released while their case was pending would no longer be able to do so under the new law, which would end the practice of judges setting monetary bail, which opponents see cash bail as fundamentally unfair and dangerous to the public’s safety.

Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, judges would still be required to determine whether a defendant harms the public or poses a flight risk before ordering their release under the court’s direction or their detention in custody.

Supporters claim it would increase justice system equity; opponents assert it might increase the number of dangerous persons on the streets.

Republicans seized on the SAFE-T Act and bail reform, written by Democrats, throughout the recent election cycle to portray their liberal rivals as lenient toward crime.

The experiences of other jurisdictions that have already primarily done away with cash bail demonstrate that defendants frequently appear in court and aren’t generally charged with additional offenses while on release. Studies also indicate that abolishing monetary bail does not significantly reduce crime.