Today, the Coalition to End Money Bond is releasing our new report, Protecting Public Health Through Decarceration: Holding Cook County’s Criminal Courts Accountable During the COVID-19 Pandemic, and holding a vigil outside the offices of Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, Chief Judge Timothy Evans, and State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx to demand further action to decarcerate Cook County Jail. The report’s release comes two days before the third anniversary of General Order 18.8A, a court rule issued in 2017 that instructs Cook County judges to set money bonds only in amounts that people can afford to pay. 

Earlier this year, COVID-19 claimed the lives of seven people incarcerated in the jail and sickened hundreds more. These caskets represent those men and the further lives we believe will inevitably be lost if the number of people in jail is not reduced again. In the spring, pressure from community organizing and litigation led the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail to drop by more than 1,500 people. Over the summer, however, the number of people incarcerated in the jail has increased by more than 1,000. Action must be taken now before more lives are lost. Cook County Jail is a disaster waiting to happen.

Read our new report analyzing the COVID-19 pandemic that has rocked Cook County Jail and our recommendations to prevent the loss of further lives: endmoneybond.org/covid19

Our new report looks at data collected through FOIA and by volunteer courwatchers to analyze how the number of people incarcerated in the jail has risen and makes recommendations on how Cook County can ensure the number goes down and most importantly, stays down. 

Cook County judges are backsliding on bond reform at a time when the stakes could not be higher. A person’s access to wealth should never determine whether they are caged, and it is truly disturbing that in this moment, the size of someone’s bank account is the determining factor in whether they are exposed to a life-threatening illness. The ongoing incarceration of over 1,000 people solely because they cannot pay a money bond also violates the U.S. and Illinois state constitutions. COVID-19 has further magnified the unjust and unethical harms of pretrial incarceration, and the Illinois legislature must take action to end money bond. Lives are depending on it.