In September of 2023 a mysterious journalistic force bombarded our county with hysterical pseudo-newspapers under the banner Chambana News. Though they took the form of an advertising sheet from Walmart or Menard’s, they were actually a classic example of disinformation, combined with misinformation. These fake newspapers aimed to instill panic in the public regarding the impending implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), part of Illinois’s Safe-T-Act, one of the most progressive pieces of criminal justice legislative reform of this century. Chambana News told us that we were about to witness a real-life version of The Purge, with thousands of people being released from jail and swarming into the streets like packs of dogs chasing a truckload of fresh meat.
Fortunately, time passes, and disinformation and misinformation are often proven false when their dire predictions fail to materialize. Now, just over a year into the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act, cash bond has disappeared. The vast majority of people who have been arrested are released almost immediately, as the act mandates. Instead of chaos, mayhem, and violence it has produced much of what it guaranteed: fewer people in jail, no one going into debt over repaying court bonds, and a fairer process of adjudication of cases. This is a remarkable success, but it is not without controversy from surprising quarters—the liberal Democrats of the County Board.
Before we turn to the controversy, let’s look at the amazing stats the PFA has yielded:
According to the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, more than $100 million that would have been used to bond people out of jail has stayed in the hands of communities. This money can contribute to wealth creation in Black, brown, and poor white communities instead of swelling the coffers of law enforcement. The presence of this money makes communities safer and better able to stand on their own two economic feet.
Apart from the pundits of Chambana News, many liberals also predicted that without cash bond people would not show up for court appearances. There was also concern that they would be rearrested more often without having to pay bond. Neither of these things has happened. Studies done by Loyola University academic David Olson show that in fact there has been a two-percent decrease statewide in failures to appear. In fact, not only have failures to appear declined, but the much-vaunted crime wave of The Purge has not come to pass. According to Olson and his team, violent and property crime rates have fallen 12 percent. The fearmongering spread by Chambana News was just that—not at all connected to reality.
All of these reforms increase the fairness of a system that was disproportionately jailing Black people, often holding them in pretrial status for several months, in some cases several years, before the resolution of their cases. These long pretrial stints behind bars often disrupted families, depriving them of income, often leaving them unable to pay rent or power bills, having to give up medical expenses to cover money bond payments.
Most importantly, jail populations across the state have fallen dramatically. Cook County jail census has fallen by 25 percent. The rural jail population has declined by 14 percent. Champaign County, however, remains about average in jail population reductions, with the numbers ranging from 260 to 290 between September, 2023 and February, 2024 and then falling to between 220 and 250 by July of this year.
Amazingly the PFA, rather than generating panic, has gained momentum to further spread its wings. The success of the PFA spawned the Pretrial Success Act, which passed this year and set aside funding for additional services that will keep people out of jail: provision of childcare, mental wellness programs, and substance use treatment.
While in general the PFA has drawn positive reviews even in conservative media like the Chicago Tribune, authorities in Champaign County have been less enthusiastic in their assessment. Although State’s Attorney Julia Rietz has been a consistent supporter of the PFA, at times we have to read between the lines of law enforcement praise. At least two items related to the PFA have been targeted for critique. First has come the claim that the elimination of bail has greatly reduced the revenue for the county, leading to a budget shortfall. This, according to some county board members, has contributed to the need for a search for alternative sources of revenue. The result was placing a quarter-cent public safety sales tax initiative on the November ballot. This controversial measure, backed by County Executive Steve Sommers and the majority of Democrats on the Board, drew serious opposition from County Clerk Aaron Ammons and Board Chair Samantha Carter, who argued as a regressive tax it would disproportionately impact poor people, especially the Black population. Closely linked to this has been the crisis in the Public Defender’s office. While Chief Public Defender Lis Pollock has been a staunch supporter of the PFA, arguing that “No person’s financial status should dictate whether they’re denied bail,” recent statistics have shown that since the advent of the PFA, the need for investigations of cases has greatly escalated, putting a pinch on the Public Defender’s budget. Coupled with the shortage of staff in the office, this has prompted Pollock to back the tax measure.
However, County Auditor George Danos read the tea leaves of the county budget a little differently. He claims there is about seven million dollars available for immediate spending by the county, making the need for a sales tax superfluous. At election time, the voters went with Ammons, Carter, and Danos, overwhelmingly rejecting the Public Safety Sales Tax, 66 to 34 percent.
So despite the grievances of certain county authorities, the elimination of cash bail, coupled with a fall in the population under the Illinois Department of Corrections of about 40 percent in the last decade, keeps our state at the cutting edge of moves to decarcerate. But while we have succeeded in getting people out of cages, we have a long way to go in building up programs to prevent incarceration and provide support for people coming home from prison. As a formerly incarcerated person who has worked in reentry in this community for the past ten years, I am acutely aware of the serious gaps in providing housing and mental wellness supports for people hitting the streets. The 25 dollars the IDOC provides individuals upon release is more of a joke than a help. Moreover, the decision by our county to spend $20 million on refurbishing the county jail is hardly in line with the winds of change blowing across the state’s criminal legal system. The PFA has provided us with a progressive guiding light. Let’s try to follow that guide and find creative ways to enhance public safety by expanding our services and changing the narrative about public safety rather than growing law enforcement budgets and facilities.
James Kilgore is the Director of Advocacy and Outreach for FirstFollowers Reentry Program in Champaign as well as a writer and researcher on issues related to mass incarceration. He is the author of seven books, including, with Vic Liu, The Warehouse: A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration (PM Press, 2024).
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