State’s attorney says end of cash bail an ‘abject failure’ in his
Illinois county
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[October 25, 2024]
By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A full year into the state’s end of cash bail, a
suburban county state’s attorney says the law has been “an abject
failure” for his county.
Illinois ended cash bail statewide in September 2023 after litigation
against the law was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court. The
Pretrial Fairness Act is part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness
and Equity Today, or SAFE-T, Act.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said the data in his
county doesn’t show what proponents promised.
“There was a 30% increase in crime by those on pretrial release compared
to those on cash bail,” Kenneally told The Center Square.
Contrary to proponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act who said the law
would decrease jail populations, Kenneally said he found the opposite in
his county.
“On the eve of the SAFT-T Act, on Sept. 17, 2023, there were 204 people
in the McHenry County Jail and on Sept. 15 of 2024, which is exactly one
year counting for the leap year, there were 216 people in the McHenry
County Jail,” Kenneally said.
The findings didn’t stop there. Kenneally said there was a 280% increase
in the number of criminal defendants who didn’t appear for their
hearings. But one area he highlighted with the end of cash bail is the
diminished victims compensation fund.
“If people are no longer required to put down any deposit of money, what
that means is that even if you say, ‘hey, you have to pay a victim this
amount in restitution’ … a very little amount of that money is being
paid,” he said.
The Illinois Network for Pretrial Fairness said Kenneally used
percentages to inflate data.
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“The actual difference between the number of people who were accused
of new offenses under pretrial release vs. people released after
paying money bond is 17,” the group said. ”It is only because the
total number of people accused of new offenses is small that the
percentage increase seems large.”
They say Kenneally’s analysis of the jail population “suffers from
the same defect, because the rise is minimal – just 12 people,
representing an increase of 5.5%”
“He further claims there has been a 280% increase in Failures to
Appear, which sounds alarming – if it were true,” the group said.
“In reality, Failure to Appear Warrants have actually decreased by
42% in McHenry County, dropping from 1,055 to 616.”
They say the law allows warrants to be issued when a judge decides
it is necessary to bring someone into court because they will not
return voluntarily.
They point to information from the Center for Criminal Justice they
say shows Illinois’ system “of basing pretrial release decisions on
public safety rather than wealth is working.”
In a news release, Kenneally said the problem with the law ending
cash bail is it “denies county judges, elected by the communities
affected by the alleged crimes, the discretion to detain defendants
charged with most crimes, no matter how high-risk.”
“One need not be a professor of criminology to understand that
mandating judges in all circumstances to release high-risk
defendants pretrial is a misguided and unreasonable policy,”
Kenneally said. “A policy that proceeded from the ideology of a
privileged group of advocates who dictate criminal justice
legislation in Illinois overcoming common sense.”
The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice countered that.
“People alleged to pose a danger to others or a risk of flight can
be detained after robust, individualized hearings,” the group said.
“Judges preside over those hearings and get to decide who is
detained pretrial and who is released.” |