Looking Back: Six Months Without Money Bond In Illinois
Six months ago today, Illinois implemented the Pretrial Fairness Act and became the first state in the country to completely end the use of money bond. It is still early, but overall, stakeholders across Illinois have reported smooth and successful implementation. We want to take this moment to provide an update about implementation and to be clear about what we don’t yet know.
The Number of People Incarcerated in County Jails is Down
- Preliminary data shows that the number of people incarcerated in county jails has decreased! People are no longer held in jail simply because their loved ones can’t afford to buy their freedom. The law is ensuring that more people maintain employment, housing, and positive family and social connections while awaiting trial in the community.
- These reductions have important implications for fairness in the justice system. People jailed pretrial are more likely to be convicted and serve longer sentences than those who are not incarcerated as they await trial, ensuring the justice system is more equitable.
- Research from other jurisdictions indicates that we can take steps towards ending mass incarceration while maintaining and even improving community safety.
Money is Staying in Vulnerable Communities
- Wealth-based pretrial detention has taken resources from communities for decades, disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx communities and families living in poverty.
- From 2016 to 2020, Illinoisians paid anywhere from $121 million to more than $154 million dollars per year in money bonds. That money will now remain with family members across the state to contribute to the overall well-being and economic security of entire communities.
Hearings are More Robust — And Tied to Safety Instead of Wealth
- Prior to the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act, detention hearings were brief—4 minutes on average—and judges primarily chose dollar amounts with little attention to other conditions of release or outright detention. Now, hearings are more robust. An average detention hearing lasts 22 minutes.
- Accused people are represented by an attorney who can present evidence about their client’s circumstances for the judge’s consideration. Courts now make individualized inquiries into an accused person’s risk to a specific person or their community and/or their risk of flight while awaiting trial.
What We Don’t Know
- Some opponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act have pointed to limited or misleading statistics to draw false conclusions about the impact of the law.
- Generally, the statistics cited are related to a single county over a short or irregular period of time. The reporting of those statistics is not verified and does not constitute a robust enough sample to reflect any trends accurately.
- They are, put differently, no more reliable than if we claimed pretrial reform was succeeding based on short-trend decreases in crime rates. It is simply premature to draw such conclusions.
- Other opponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act provide anecdotes and claim there is “a revolving door.” Those are anecdotes, not evidence of a trend.
- In contrast, researchers at the Loyola University of Chicago Center for Criminal Justice are diligently studying the impact of the law by collecting statewide data spanning several years.
- Robust, systematic data collection over time will allow researchers to draw appropriate and accurate conclusions about the impact of the law.
- Researchers will collect data from all 92 of the state’s jails and will study court outcomes, pretrial detention rates, jail populations, rearrest rates, and the impact on marginalized communities.
Flaws of Comparing Release Decisions Pre- and Post-Reform
- Many opponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act suggest that judges now release people only because they are required to under the new law and that before, judges would have detained these same people. That’s misleading. Before enactment of pretrial reform, most people paid their bonds within a week—even when charged with offenses now eligible for detention. Judges have as many or more options for setting conditions of release or denying release outright under the new law with the sole exception of requiring money to secure release.
By eliminating money bond, Illinois has taken a critical step towards addressing mass incarceration. Our work, however, is far from over. First, it is essential that the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts comes into full compliance with the law by collecting and publishing data from all of Illinois county court systems. In order to properly monitor implementation and hold their local stakeholders accountable, communities need to be able to review comprehensive data. For too long, Illinois’ pretrial system went without proper scrutiny. Making our courts more transparent is essential to the success of the Pretrial Fairness Act.
We also have more work to do to address the harm rampant pretrial jailing has caused our communities. Key to that is passing the Pretrial Success Act, which will increase court appearance rates and improve community safety by expanding access to case management, mental healthcare, and substance use treatment for people awaiting trial. The safest communities are the ones that have the most resources, not the most people in jail. It’s past time for Illinois to take steps to ensure that all communities have the resources they need to thrive.
