Washington, D.C. — With the recent implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act, Illinois became the first state to eliminate cash bail in all cases. Now, safety, not wealth, will be centered in pretrial decision-making. People accused of a crime will no longer be forced to sit in jail for several weeks or months while awaiting trial simply because they cannot afford to buy their freedom. A new Center for American Progress issue brief discusses how the Pretrial Fairness Act will improve both safety and justice throughout Illinois’ pretrial system and has the potential to serve as a model for positive pretrial reforms nationwide.
The brief provides an overview of how cash bail jeopardizes public safety and perpetuates racial injustices, as well as how cash bail reform improves both safety and fairness. The Pretrial Fairness Act improves safety through individualized assessments and restricting and reducing the use of pretrial incarceration and limiting its harms.
It also protects the rights of people accused of crime and ensures equal access to a just pretrial process by:
- Requiring the issuing of tickets in lieu of custodial arrest. Examples of these cases include traffic offenses, Class B and C misdemeanors, and petty or business crime, where there is no concern for safety of the individual or the community.
- Creating expedited and clear pretrial procedures. Anyone taken into custody must appear in front of a judge within 48 hours of arrest to ensure they do not spend unnecessary time in jail.
- Ending harmful practices that lead to wealth extraction. In the first four months without cash bonds, Illinois families saved an estimated $46 million in cash bail costs.
- Expanding access to counsel. Access to counsel has been shown to reduce racial disparities in pretrial incarceration.
- Reducing the number of innocent people who face pretrial incarceration. This can be done by restricting the use of pretrial incarceration to cases that meet specified requirements based on charge, flight risk, and other safety factors.
- Providing opportunities to review cases of people incarcerated pretrial. This review process will allow the court to make individualized release decisions based on a more informed understanding of the public safety considerations in each case and serve as a way to review decisions that may have been informed by an incomplete consideration of individual circumstances or racial bias.
“No statistic can fully capture the impact that eliminating cash bail has on community safety,” said Allie Preston, senior policy analyst for Criminal Justice Reform at CAP. “But the stabilizing impact of families remaining together and avoiding the loss of custody, jobs, housing, education, and benefits that is too often caused by pretrial incarceration can have intangible benefits on long-term safety.”
Read the brief: “The Pretrial Fairness Act: Why It Is Needed and How It Will Improve Pretrial Safety and Justice in Illinois” by Allie Preston
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Jasmine Razeghi at [email protected].