Ending Money Bail Makes Communities Safer, Fairer, and Protects Due Process

Policy Statements ,

This statement from the Chicago Council of Lawyers was originally published in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin on March 22, 2021. Click here for the article.

On February 22, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a landmark criminal justice reform package—the Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity – Today (SAFE-T) Act—that aims to transform Illinois’ criminal legal system. One of the most significant components of this legislation, which was spearheaded by the Illinois Black Caucus, is the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA). The Pretrial Fairness Act will put an end to a broken pretrial system that has driven wrongful convictions, mass incarceration, and racial and economic inequity by establishing a new system that prioritizes fairness and safety.

As Chicago’s public interest bar association, the Chicago Council of Lawyers is proud to be among more than 100 organizations that have endorsed the provisions of the Pretrial Fairness Act.

The PFA has five main elements which, taken together, will dramatically overhaul the ineffective pretrial system: First, it will end wealth-based incarceration by making Illinois the first state in the nation to completely eliminate money bond as a deciding factor in detention decisions. Second, it narrows the possibilities for pretrial detention to people facing very specific allegations who pose a significant flight risk or a specific threat to another person (the PFA gives discretion to judges and allows the prosecution to make the case on the record for detention). Third, it will reform some of the processes that force people – disproportionately lower-income people of color – into incarceration, such as risk assessments, warrant processes, and electronic monitoring. Fourth, it ensures transparency and oversight by establishing a system to collect, analyze, and publish data on bond hearings and the bond status of people in jails across Illinois. Finally, the Pretrial Fairness Act establishes a working group specifically to address the needs of domestic and gender-based violence survivors.

Illinois’ current pretrial system of cash bail and incarceration has had a devastating impact. Because of racially biased patterns of policing and criminalization, Black and Latinx individuals, families, and communities suffer heavily and disproportionately from the abusive practices of the current pretrial system.

  • Every year, bond payments take millions of dollars out of the pockets of the families (typically led by Black and Brown women) who can least afford it. Sixty percent of Americans lack the savings to cover a $1,000 emergency. Requiring bond payments as a condition of pretrial release means that many people who have not even been convicted of a crime yet are condemned to a jail cell solely because of poverty.
  • Pretrial incarceration has extremely negative consequences on peoples’ employment and earnings potential. People who are detained pretrial are more likely to accept plea bargains in order to be released, even when they are innocent, which drives up conviction rates. Individuals detained for as little as 72 hours are 2.5 times more likely to be unemployed one year later, and past incarceration reduces annual income by as much as 40%. 
  • Pretrial incarceration also threatens economic opportunities by disrupting job training and adult educational programs. Job loss and unemployability resulting from pretrial incarceration can lead to housing insecurity and homelessness, and people with criminal convictions have more difficulty finding housing and are often restricted from affordable housing programs. 

On average, it costs over $38,000 per person per year to incarcerate people awaiting trial. Those funds could be spent far more effectively on education, job training, substance abuse treatment programs, and other services which enable people to become economically productive citizens. The Pretrial Fairness Act would end the harmful legal practices that have created these powerfully destructive effects.

As Governor Pritzker said in a statement upon signing the SAFE-T Act: “This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state, and our nation and brings us closer to true safety, true fairness, and true justice.” The Chicago Council of Lawyers agrees. The Pretrial Fairness Act is a prime example of the kind of systemic, evidence-based social justice reform work we have long championed.

The Chicago Council of Lawyers strongly endorses the Pretrial Fairness Act and urge other bar associations in Illinois to join us in our support of this historic legislation and in our commitment to doing whatever we can to ensure its success.

You can learn more about the Pretrial Fairness Act at EndMoneyBond.org or by accessing the fact sheets below: