Today, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice and more than 400 signers, represented by the law firm Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd. and the ACLU of Illinois, filed an amicus brief supporting the Pretrial Fairness Act. The brief supports the Illinois Attorney General’s Office’s appeal of a Kankakee County Judge’s ruling that sided with 58 State’s Attorneys and sheriffs suing Illinois leadership over the end of money bond. The amicus brief presents social science research and other evidence rebutting two false premises underlying the Circuit Court’s ruling: (1) that ending money bond threatens public safety, and (2) that requiring people to pay money bonds accomplishes any legitimate purpose of pretrial release. More than 400 organizations and individual faith leaders, professors, and elected officials signed onto the amicus brief defending the Pretrial Fairness Act. 

Throughout the amicus brief, the authors highlight the ways in which wealth-based pretrial jailing has destabilized the lives of people across Illinois. Pretrial incarceration has devastating impacts on the people incarcerated and their families, leading to job loss, housing instability, damage to family and community relationships, and lack of physical and mental health care.

The amicus brief asserts that it is a baseless claim that ending money bond and releasing people who are not a danger to others and are not a flight risk will lead to more crime. Studies show that pretrial incarceration is correlated with increased rearrest rates in the months and years that follow release from incarceration, which means that pretrial detention has actually most likely been making victims and communities, mostly those of color that are already burdened by violence, less safe. Jurisdictions where money bond has been eliminated or drastically reduced have not experienced an increase in failures to appear or new arrests of people released pretrial. Additionally, the brief cites data showing that the single most effective tool in reducing failure-to-appear rates is court date reminders, not the threat of forfeiting bail money. 

The Pretrial Fairness Act was passed with support from over 100 organizations, legislators, policy advocates, and law enforcement and was signed into law nearly two years ago. This sweeping reform was intended to improve public safety and ensure Illinois’ pretrial system prioritizes facts over finances. Amendments to the law were negotiated and passed on December 1, 2022, with legislators agreeing to begin implementation on January 1, 2023 as had been planned for nearly two years. Shortly thereafter, a single county judge’s decision forced the Illinois Supreme Court to act, pausing implementation to ensure uniform application of the law across the state. The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice welcomes the court’s review and eagerly anticipates the end of money bond after the Pretrial Fairness Act is deemed constitutional.