A Year of the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act Sets a National Model for Reform

One year ago the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect. By ending the use of money bail in courts across the state, it both reduced the number of people in jail pending trial and made the legal system more fair and just—at no cost to our safety. After 12 months, the impressive results are in, and policymakers across the country should take note.

Recent data released by Loyola University’s Center for Criminal Justice indicates that the Pretrial Fairness Act has not only curbed incarceration rates but also maintained public safety. Jail populations decreased by 14% in Cook County and other urban jurisdictions and 25% in select rural counties. As these jail numbers have dropped, so have crime rates across Illinois—for example, statewide violent and property crime rates dropped by 12%. As a case study for the practicality and necessity of bail reform, the Pretrial Fairness Act has proven its impact.

In passing the law, leaders in Illinois followed a robust body of evidence that finds wealth-based detention undermines both safety and justice. A two-tiered legal system where someone who is wealthy can afford to pay bail and return home pending trial while someone who cannot afford their freedom languishes in jail—for weeks, months, or even years—is not just. Moreover, years of research shows that pretrial detention is counter to public safety, as even a few hours in jail is so destabilizing that it makes a person more likely to be arrested again in the future.

Illinois’ success shows there is no false choice between being safe or having a more just legal system.

Loud opponents of bail reform in Illinois claimed that the law would empty jails and compromise public safety. They spent $40 million on a high-profile campaign to undermine the Pretrial Fairness Act even before it went into effect, calling the law “the Purge” and using racist dog whistles to peddle sensational and false stories about crime. But the evidence speaks for itself, and Illinois’ success is not an outlier. Data from New Jersey, which enacted bail reform over seven years ago, shows the jail population declined and the number of people awaiting trial in jail fell by 40% while crime rates went down. Even in New York, where bail reform has been much maligned, a recent study found that the reform has not contributed to a rise in crime.

A significant cross section of Illinois stakeholders came together in support of the Pretrial Fairness Act: Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, law enforcement leaders from across the state, and advocacy groups like the Coalition to End Money Bond, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence, and the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, to name just a few.

Importantly, victims and survivors of violence were a key part of the movement to end money bail in Illinois. What motivated this diverse group of champions for reform? For one, the shocking racial disparities that result from a money bail system, where Black and brown families, and families experiencing poverty, disproportionately bear the brunt of making an impossible choice between paying for the freedom of their loved one versus making rent, putting food on the table, and paying for other basic necessities.

A money bail system also forces people to make the impossible choice of staying in jail to insist on their day in court or pleading guilty to go home. Ending the money bail system in Illinois was also a matter of gender justice. Mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, and other women are most often the ones to pay bail when their loved one is incarcerated. And, of women who are incarcerated, 70-80% have experienced intimate partner violence. Taking money bail out of the equation and having fewer people—including women—behind bars begins to right some of those wrongs.

There are many other important statistics that drive home the point that we need to eliminate money bail not only in Illinois, but across the United States. Black people represent 13.6% of the United States population but account for 53% of exonerations. People incarcerated for as little as 72 hours are 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed one year later. Illinois’ success shows there is no false choice between being safe or having a more just legal system. As we celebrate a year of the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act, people around the country should take note. Wealth-based detention has always been an obstacle to a safer future, but we have real solutions that deliver both safety and justice.