In the summer of 2022, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice undertook a statewide court-watching project to document the real human costs of the current money bond system and demonstrate the absolute necessity of fully implementing the Pretrial Fairness Act on January 1, 2023. In seven counties – Champaign, DuPage, Kane, McLean, Peoria, Sangamon, and Winnebago – 56 trained volunteer court-watchers observed 1,026 bond hearings and detailed information about the cases they watched and their impressions of the proceedings as a whole.

Today, we are excited to share our findings in a new report “$tate of Injustice: A Community Review of Bond Courts in Illinois“. Read the full report or check out the fact sheet.