250 People from Across Illinois Lobby and Rally for an End to Money Bond and for Pretrial Justice Reforms
Yesterday, community groups and individuals with the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice and the Coalition to End Money Bond journeyed to Springfield from across Illinois to lobby legislators and rally for pretrial justice reforms, including an end to money bond. During the the day’s closing rally, we were joined by State Representatives Justin Slaughter and Carol Ammons and State Senators Robert Peters and Elgie Sims. In her speech, Representative Ammons called ending money bail, “one of those most important issues of our generation.” The lobby day and rally came on the heels of Governor Pritzker’s January announcement that his administration is committed to ending money bail.
From Bloomington to Rockford and from Chicago to Carbondale, communities are organizing to end money bail and dramatically reduce the number of people incarcerated in our state. Every year, more than a quarter of a million people are incarcerated in jails across Illinois. Most of these people are incarcerated while still awaiting trial, and many are jailed simply because they cannot afford to pay a money bond. Pretrial incarceration causes people to lose their jobs, housing, and even custody of their children—all without having been convicted of a crime. Across the country, lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions have previously found wealth-based pretrial incarceration to be unconstitutional.
To visualize the number of people impacted by pretrial incarceration every year, members of the Coalition and Network delivered jars filled with gummy bears. Each jar came with a note inviting the legislators to guess how many gummy bears were in the jar. On the other side of the note, it was revealed that there were 250 gummy bears, representing one one-thousandth of the 250,000 people incarcerated pretrial every year in Illinois. Every State Representative and Senator received a jar along with information about our proposed pretrial reforms.
One of the volunteer lobbyists of the day, Timothy Williams, was previously incarcerated in Cook County Jail because he couldn’t afford to pay his $7,500 bond. As a result, Tim lost his job and his family lost their housing. Incarcerating people simply because they can’t afford to pay a money bond makes us all less safe. Tim hadn’t been convicted of a crime, and yet their family’s lives were destabilized and nearly destroyed. There are stories like his across this state that our legislators need to hear; we can’t let another family like Tim’s be victimized by this system.
We often hear that wealth-based pretrial incarceration is only impacting Chicago, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. During yesterday’s rally, Olivia Butts from Black Lives Matter BloNo and Decarcerate Bloomington-Normal and Anthony Walraven Change Peoria spoke about the impact money bail has on their communities. Monica Davenport came to Springfield on the United Congregations of Metro East bus from East St. Louis because she was incarcerated pretrial years ago on an unaffordable money bail. While this was over a decade ago, it made a lasting impact on her and committed her to ending money bond. Monica was pregnant at the time and was released after three weeks when her case was dismissed completely.
The Champaign County Bailout Coalition also participated in yesterday’s lobby day. Over the last year, they have been paying bond for people incarcerated in the Champaign County Jail that can’t afford it every month. While they’re honored to do that work, it should not be necessary. Other participating organizations from around the state included Illinois-NOW, ACLU of Springfield, Faith Coalition for the Common Good, Bloomington-Normal DSA, UU Advocacy Network of Illinois, Macon County Criminal Justice Group, and the UU Prison Ministry of Illinois, as well as all the members of the Coalition to End Money Bond and many independent individuals.
The state of Illinois finds itself at a crossroads: we have the opportunity to be the country’s leader in pretrial justice reform, but in order to do that we must be bold. Simply ending money bond alone will not guarantee a more just and equitable pretrial system. We must create a process that is fairer for all Ilinoisans. Our Coalition has outlined a set of policy reforms that will make our communities safer and save our state millions of dollars while dramatically reducing the number of people incarcerated pretrial: Vision for a Just Pretrial System in Illinois. The report was shared with legislators during lobby day visits along with a fact sheet on the reforms we want to see.
You can see press coverage of the lobby day here:
