Last month, Governor Pritzker signed the Pretrial Services Act (725 ILCS 185), which requires the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts to establish pretrial services in counties where they do not currently exist. Pretrial services are local agencies whose staff recommend and administer the pretrial conditions that people awaiting trial are required to comply with. 

Historically, pretrial services have caused many of the same harms as pretrial incarceration by placing conditions onto a person’s release that restrict their freedom. Pretrial conditions often include required check-ins with pretrial service officers, drug testing, and house arrest with electronic monitoring. These conditions are framed as helping accused people come back to court and avoid re-arrest, but in practice they often create hurdles to people’s success while awaiting trial, subject them to unnecessary surveillance, and in some cases lead to people being reincarcerated. The Chicago Community Bond Fund documented the negative impacts of pretrial services in “Punishment is Not a Service” a report and short film released in 2017. Research suggests that the most effective way to get people to return to court is to simply provide assistance to accused people through court reminders in the form of texts, emails, or mailings. Additionally, research has shown that the vast majority of people who are released pretrial without restrictive conditions return to court and are not rearrested. 

Some criminal legal system stakeholders have argued that the elimination of money bond should be tied to an expansion of pretrial services, but there is no evidence that pretrial services expansion is in any way necessary to making bail reform successful. The vast majority of people can be 100% free of court restrictions and still return to court and avoid re-arrest. Many of the people who are released due to bond reform would have been released without conditions under the previous system if they had been able to pay their money bond. In 2023, the Pretrial Fairness Act will end the use of money bond in Illinois, making the scope of pretrial services one of the main fronts in the fight for pretrial freedom.

The newly passed Pretrial Services Act does not prescribe what the newly established pretrial services should look like and calls for a statewide Pretrial Services framework to be developed. This represents an opportunity for Illinois to establish pretrial services that truly support the success of accused people and align with national best practices. Our report “From Policy to Progress: A Roadmap for the Successful Implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act” offers the following recommendations for what pretrial services programs should look like in jurisdictions where they exist. 

• Pretrial services should focus on removing barriers to court appearance and, when requested, connect people to voluntary, community-based support for those who do desire it. Some common sense pretrial supports include providing court reminders, transportation, childcare, and other supportive resources when requested. 
  • Although courts can provide linkages to treatment services, it is important that people are not mandated to attend any mental health or substance use treatment when they are legally presumed innocent. A person’s choice not to engage in treatment should never result in any pretrial punishment or negative repercussions in their pending case

• Conditions of pretrial release should not prevent accused people from performing basic personal responsibilities, impose direct or indirect economic costs, or unduly expose them to new criminal charges.
  • Electronic Monitoring imposes extreme restrictions on movement that often prevent people from completing important tasks to take care of themselves and their loved ones, which wreaks havoc on the well-being of accused people and their families without providing any benefit to public safety.
  • Drug testing is often paired with check-in requirements as a condition of pretrial release, but there is no clear evidence that drug testing or required drug treatment improves outcomes for people awaiting trial. 
  • Regularly required check-ins, mandated treatment, drug testing, and electronic monitoring are all forms of pretrial punishment that unduly restrict accused people’s liberty and put them at greater risk of being incarcerated pretrial for being unable to meet such stringent requirements.

• Risk assessment tools (RATs) should not be used to justify imposing pretrial conditions on accused people, as they have been proven to be rife with racial bias and overestimate people’s risk of missing court or getting rearrested. 

As of now, there are no explicit guidelines that aim to reduce the surveillance that accused people currently experience under pretrial services. Additionally, there are no policies that prevent electronic monitoring from becoming one of the most common pretrial conditions imposed on people when they are released, despite it having no evidence to support its efficacy. The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice is committed to advocating for support and not surveillance. We will be working with our partners across Illinois to ensure that the expansion of Pretrial Services does not restrict the freedoms of people awaiting trial when money bond ends in 2023.