CHICAGO — A drawn-out legal battle is over as the Illinois Supreme Court moved Tuesday to uphold a law that will end cash bail in the state by this fall.
In a 5-2 ruling, the state’s Supreme Court said cash bail will be eliminated across the state starting Sept. 18. While other states have drawn back cash bail, Illinois is now the first state to fully abolish it.
Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis concluded that the state’s constitution “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,” adding that ending cash bail could “balance” the rights’ of defendants and victims.
Ending cash bail was part of the “pretrial release provision” of Gov. JB Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act and was set to take effect at the start of the year — only to have the change put on pause in the final hours as sheriffs and prosecutors across the state filed legal challenges.
A downstate judge in late December sided with arguments that lawmakers interfered with the judiciary process by eliminating cash bail. State Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed an appeal, bumping the case up to the state’s highest court.
Proponents of ending cash bail say the measure is necessary to erase discriminatory practices that keep a disproportionate number of lower-income people locked up while awaiting trial.
The act would also make it harder for those charged with violent crimes — who might normally be able to post bail and get released — to get back on the street, supporters say.
Despite widespread misinformation on social media, the SAFE-T Act does not mean jails would empty out or judges would lose their authority to detain someone they believe is a danger to the public or a flight risk. It removes cash bail as a standard in pretrial procedures.
Instead of a judge assigning bail, the law would trigger detention hearings with the judge deciding whether a defendant should be detained before trial, supporters said.
Victim rights groups and criminal justice advocates have rallied around the change, while some prosecutors and law enforcement officials have pushed back, saying ending cash bail would remove guardrails to ensure people stand for their trials.
RELATED: There Is No ‘Purge Law’ In Illinois. Here Are The Facts About Ending Cash Bail
In a statement Pritzker said he was “pleased” the long-fought battle over cash bail has reached his preferred conclusion.
“We can now move forward with historic reform to ensure pre-trial detainment is determined by the danger an individual poses to the community instead of by their ability to pay their way out of jail,” Pritzker said in the statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with the General Assembly and our many other partners as we transition to a more equitable and just Illinois.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson also celebrated the ruling.
“Cash bail does not make communities safer, and it never has; it has simply exacerbated existing inequities and disparities in the criminal legal system,” Johnson said in a statement. “Pretrial detention, as a result of the inability to pay bail, further decimates communities that have long been most impacted by mass incarceration, and the destabilization of households and families.
“I am grateful that we can move forward to implement this legislation to uphold justice and equity.”
In a statement, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said the ruling is a “monumental milestone toward achieving equal justice.”
“Today’s ruling ends the cash bail system, replacing that system with a detention process based on community safety and not on the financial fitness of defendants,” Foxx said in her statement. “Everyone deserves a fair shot at justice, regardless of their zip code, paycheck, or the color of their skin.”
The Cook County Public Defender’s Office said in a statement it “applauds” the decision to end cash bail.
“Illinois can now end a great injustice that distorted the criminal legal system and move forward with removing the price tag from the presumption of innocence,” the public defender’s office said in the statement. “Ending money bond is a matter of racial justice.”
New Jersey mostly scrapped cash bail in 2017, with some officials acknowledging its court system had long discriminated against the poor.
The Public Defender’s office released a flow chart explaining how pretrial detention will work moving forward in Cook County.
Check it out here:
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