After a nine-month delay due to litigation from prosecutors who opposed the law, bail reform will be start Monday, a seminal moment for the state.
Em Gonzalez, right, of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, speaks to May Davis about bail reform outside the Beverly Farmers Market on Aug. 20, 2023.
Now, after a nine-month delay due to litigation from prosecutors across Illinois who opposed the law, the reforms will be rolled out Monday, a seminal moment for the state after years of debate over how to keep the public safe and create an equitable criminal justice system. Proponents of the law have long argued that cash bail deepened disparities in the system by disproportionately jailing people too poor to make bail, though some progressive advocates are citing concern about the law leading to an overreliance on electronic monitoring.
Under the new system, there will be an “initial appearance” court call, where defendants will mostly be released with conditions, such as regular check-ins with authorities, as well as a court call for detention hearings made up of the more serious cases in which prosecutors seek to keep defendants incarcerated while they await trial.
Defense attorneys, who often were paid out of posted bond payments, may now ask for upfront retainer fees more often, he added.Cook County has already been working under some degree of bail-reform measures since 2017, when a general order from Chief Judge Tim Evans sought to reduce judges’ use of money bond as a condition of release, with studies offering a look at the impact of bail reform.
Studies of bail reform in other jurisdictions, such as New Jersey, which eliminated most instances of cash bail, have reached similar findings. Regarding people jailed on money bonds, Nixon said public defenders will look at each case individually to decide whether to file a petition seeking release.“We’ll have to decide, along with the client, if asking the court to review the bond under the new law is more beneficial than under old current law,” Nixon said. “If their family is on the cusp of getting all the money together in order to bond them out, it might be a better situation for them than having a detention hearing.
Berlin said he generally expects people to be detained if they are charged with murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, serious domestic battery, carjackings with a gun and armed robberies with a gun, but it’s up to the judge in each case.
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