On the morning of June 17, 2019, more than 70 people gathered for a rally in downtown Chicago to support ending money bond and pretrial incarceration. Impacted people, faith leaders, elected officials, and concerned community members offered moving remarks and powerful testimonies naming the harms of Illinois’ current wealth-based pretrial practices. Speakers called for an end to pretrial incarceration due to inability to pay a money bond, which targets Illinois’ most disenfranchised residents, and demanded real investment in community resources and safety. Immediately after the rally ended, people in attendance headed to the  third of four listening sessions held by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices to hear testimony from advocates, elected officials, and people impacted by pretrial incarceration.

At the listening session, Commission members heard testimony from 21 advocates for pretrial reform. Elected officials, including State Representatives Will Guzzardi and Justin Slaughter, State Senator Robert Peters, Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, advocated for a proposed supreme court rule that would prohibit pretrial incarceration based solely on the inability to pay a money bond. A representative of the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender also spoke. Four people who had spent time in Cook County Jail due to unaffordable money bonds spoke to the Commission about the destabilizing and harmful impacts of pretrial incarceration. Lavette Mayes, Devoureaux Wolf, Timothy Williams, and Jason Hammond all testified to the ways in which their time in Cook County Jail due to unaffordable money bonds harmed them and their families and other loved ones.

Patrice James of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law represented the Coalition to End Money Bond, urging the Commission to make recommendations that would vastly reduce the number of people held in Illinois’ 92 jails and require substantial evidentiary hearings to justify any pretrial detention. James also testified in opposition of the use of pretrial electronic monitoring, instead advocating for phone call and text reminders, bus passes and rides to court, flexible court dates, and other supportive services to increase court appearance rates. Rachel Shrock of Human Rights Watch provided insight on the limitations and pitfalls of reliance on risk assessment tools to determine who should be detained or released pretrial, clarifying that these tools make recommendations based on statistical estimates and profiles rather than individualized evidence and that they have inherent racial and class biases due to their reliance on data gathered through racist policing and conviction practices.

Several speakers emphasized the negative impacts of pretrial incarceration on personal and public health. Linda Jennings, a registered nurse and member of National Nurses United and Reclaim Chicago, noted that accused people and their families often suffer severe mental and physical harm due to time spent in jail, including the exacerbation of conditions linked to stress (such as hypertension). Dr. Jenna K. Nikolaides, a specialist in addiction stabilization and recovery, countered the common argument that jail protects people who use drugs from further harm, including overdose, stating that recovery efforts are often interrupted by time spent in jail and that no amount of time spent in a cage has been proven to effectively combat addiction. Iliana Espinosa-Ravi and Steve Kamenicky of Chicago Recovery Alliance explained to Commission members that people who use drugs are most at risk of an overdose when they are released from state custody and that the only way to adequately address the overdose crisis is to decriminalize drug use and provide community-based services and voluntary treatment options.

Elesha Nightingale from Access Living spoke to the many ways that incarceration of any kind puts people with disabilities at risk of extreme harm and loss of jobs, housing, personal care, and Supplemental Security Income (disability) benefits. Rachel Bhagwat of NAMI Chicago provided a strong argument against allowing jails to be considered as mental health treatment facilities, noting that the lack of access to adequate mental health care in poor communities must not be used as an excuse for the continued criminalization of mental health conditions. Bhagwat called on the Commission to advocate for increased community-based mental health care and substance use treatment, noting that the resources spent providing services to individuals in jails would produce more positive, cost-effective outcomes if redirected to providing care in the community.

The Coalition to End Money Bond, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, and advocates of pretrial reform urge the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices to make bold, decarcerative recommendations in December 2019. We look forward to further engagement during the People’s Convening on Pretrial Freedom in Springfield on July 13th. Written testimony will be received by the Commission through June 30th.

For more information on the impact of pretrial incarceration in Illinois, download our new report, “Pursuing Pretrial Freedom: The Urgent Need for Bond Reform in Illinois,” which includes information on various counties’ jails and bond systems, as well as personal stories about the impact of unaffordable bonds. If you would like to lend your voice to the call for pretrial justice in Illinois, sign this petition calling for the Commission on Pretrial Practices to recommend adoption of a Supreme Court rule that would end wealth-based pretrial incarceration in our state.