Last week, law professors and legal scholars from across Illinois sent an open letter to the Illinois legislature in opposition to SB4228, the SAFE-T Act trailer bill drafted by the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association. If adopted, this bill would gut the Pretrial Fairness Act and replace its most important provisions with measures that would increase pretrial trialing and worsen racial disparities in Illinois jails. Their letter highlights how the provisions proposed in SB4228 violate the Illinois Constitution as well as various due process protections guaranteed by law to people who are legally innocent and awaiting trial.

Their letter makes clear that the problems with proposals to gut the Pretrial Fairness Act go beyond ignoring the intent of this legislation championed by the Illinois legislative Black Caucus; they present clear violations of the constitution and violate the rights of people who are legally innocent in Illinois’ courts. State’s Attorneys are trying to use the trailer bill to expand their power to demand more people be jailed pretrial without the possibility of release under less rigorous legal standards in the new system than the current one. Supporting SB 4228 or the individual measures within it means supporting mass incarceration, further devastation of marginalized communities, and the violation of individual rights. 

This latest opposition to SB4228 comes following protests outside the offices of State’s Attorneys Bob Berlin and Jim Glasgow, an opinion piece from Michelle Alexander and John Legend and a letter signed by more than 120 organizations opposing the bill and the provisions included in it.

Read Their Letter Here