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cash bail
A Year of the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act Sets a National Model for Reform
By ending the use of money bail, the law not only curbed incarceration rates but also maintained public safety.
Sep 24, 2024
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.
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We Must Expose and Confront the Expansion of Cash Bail Laws
Expanding the racist criminal justice system is a cynical GOP election-era ploy, one that has little to do with public safety.
Mar 16, 2024
Many Americans haven’t heard of cash bail. But the idea is central to an election year battle over racism, policing, and mass incarceration.
When arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, everyone in the United States has the right to due process and to defend themselves in court. But in a cash bail system, when judges set bail amounts, those who cannot pay the full amount remain jailed indefinitely—a clear violation of their due process rights—while the rich can pay their way out of jail.
A 2022 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examined the impact of cash bail and found that between 1970 and 2015, the number of people jailed before trial increased by a whopping 433%.
Reversing progress on bail reform is a new flashpoint in the GOP’s culture wars.
There are currently about half a million such people stuck in jails across the nation who haven’t been tried or convicted of any crimes. The report also found “stark disparities with regards to race,” with Black and brown men most often subject to higher bail amounts.
Thankfully, many states and cities are moving to reform this unfair practice.
In 2023, Illinois became the first state to entirely abolish cash bail. Other states, such as New Mexico, New Jersey, and Kentucky, have almost entirely ended cash bail requirements in recent years. In California, Los Angeles County has also similarly eliminated cash bail for all crimes except the most serious ones.
But in this election year, Republicans are rolling back these efforts—most recently in Georgia.
The state recently passed a bill expanding cash bail for 30 new crimes, some of which appear to be aimed at protesters, such as unlawful assembly. Further, it criminalizes charitable bail funds—and even individuals—that bail out people who can’t afford to bail out themselves.
Marlon Kautz, who runs the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, called cash bail “a loophole” in the criminal justice system, allowing courts to indefinitely jail people without charges if they cannot pay exorbitant bail amounts.
“Police, prosecutors, and politicians want a bail system that allows them to punish their political enemies, poor people, and people of color without trial,” said Kautz, whose fund has bailed out people protesting a massive new police training facility opponents call “Cop City.” Kautz was one of three people affiliated with the fund to be arrested on apparently politicized charges last year.
Reversing progress on bail reform is a new flashpoint in the GOP’s culture wars. “It could be a sign that Republicans intend to bash their Democratic opponents as soft on crime,” The Associated Press reported. Alongside Georgia, Republicans in Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin have introduced numerous bills expanding the use of cash bail.
Expanding the racist criminal justice system is a cynical GOP election-era ploy, one that has little to do with public safety.
“It is exceedingly rare for someone who’s released pretrial to be arrested and accused of a new offense that involves violence against another person,” said Sharlyn Grace, an official at the Cook County Public Defender’s office in Illinois. “Fears about public safety are in many ways greatly overblown and misplaced.”
“National studies contradict” the claim, the AP adds, that people are any less likely to show up for a court date if they’re released without bail.
Election years are a scary time for people of color in the U.S. They are marked by race-based voter suppression efforts, a rise in racist political rhetoric, and even a surge in racist hate crimes. The expansion of cash bail laws is yet another attack on Black and brown communities—one that must be exposed and confronted.
We shouldn’t let reform efforts fall victim to election year politics.
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'Historic': Illinois Supreme Court Puts State Back on Track to End Cash Bail
"The implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act will make Illinois the first state in the country to remove the price tag from the presumption of innocence," said the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice.
Jul 18, 2023
Criminal justice reform advocates on Tuesday celebrated that Illinois is set to become the first U.S. state to eliminate cash bail by the end of this summer after the Illinois Supreme Court found that the law does not violate the state constitution.
The contested Pretrial Fairness Act—seen as a model for other states to follow—was passed as part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act signed in February 2021 by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who, along with fellow Democrats Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and state Attorney General Kwame Raoul, joined campaigners in cheering the new court decision.
"The Illinois Constitution of 1970 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," the majority opinion states. "Our constitution creates a balance between the individual rights of defendants and the individual rights of crime victims. The act's pretrial release provisions set forth procedures commensurate with that balance."
The 5-2 ruling—Republicans Justices David Overstreet and Lisa Holder White dissented—overturns a December decision from a Kankakee County judge who sided with state's attorneys and sheriffs who sued over the law. The Illinois Supreme Court directed courts statewide to prepare to implement the policy by September 18.
Welcoming the decision in a statement Tuesday, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice blasted money bail as "one of the most glaring injustices in our criminal legal system," and declared that "the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act will make Illinois the first state in the country to remove the price tag from the presumption of innocence."
"Ending money bond addresses both economic justice and racial justice issues in the pretrial system. In communities across Illinois, Black people have been disproportionately impacted by wealth-based jailing," the network said, noting that the state locks up a quarter-million people in county jails each year. "Giving people the opportunity to stay in their communities while awaiting trial will enable them to keep their jobs, housing, and custody of their children, making us all safer."
While "conservatives have used fear-mongering and misinformation to try to derail its success" since the measure passed, now county officials must "put politics aside and work together to properly implement the law," the network stressed. "Continued attempts to sabotage the Pretrial Fairness Act would not only dismiss the will of the people, but also jeopardize community safety."
"This is a historic juncture in the fight against mass incarceration, but it is far from the end of our work," the network added. "It is critical that we don't stop at ending money bond and that realize our goal of dramatically reducing pretrial incarceration in our state. Ending money bond and reducing pretrial incarceration bring us closer to a future where our communities are safe, our people are supported, our system is fair, and wealth does not determine one's freedom."
David Gaspar, CEO of the Bail Project—which provides bail assistance while advocating for pretrial systems that are more equitable, humane, and just—also applauded the state Supreme Court's ruling on Tuesday.
"Today, the Illinois State Supreme Court affirmed what we've always known—that cash bail is un-American, it upends foundational American rights that everyone is equal under the law and innocent until proven otherwise, and has no place in our state statutes or constitutions," he said. "Where it exists, cash bail creates a two-tiered system of justice: one where those who can afford to pay bail get released, and another where those who are too poor to pay bail are forced to remain incarcerated while awaiting trial."
"With cash bail gone in Illinois, it's time for policymakers to immediately fund and scale effective nonfinancial alternatives to cash bail like court notifications, travel assistance, and referrals to crucial supportive services that help people return to court and avoid justice system involvement altogether," Gaspar added. "Our own work demonstrates that with these smart investments and enough support, people will return to court more than 90% of the time without any of their own money on the line."
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