Today, the Illinois legislature passed the Pretrial Success Act as part of the Illinois state budget. Building upon the successful implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act, which made Illinois the first state to completely end money bond, the Pretrial Success Act will dramatically increase access to health and human services for people awaiting trial. By January 2025, the Illinois Department of Human Services will begin providing grants to local organizations in five communities as part of a six-month pilot of the Pretrial Success Act. In July 2025, implementation will expand statewide, with recommendations for funding in each community provided by a local advisory council.

Since the Pretrial Fairness Act took effect in September, more people are maintaining employment, housing, and positive family and social connections while awaiting trial in the community. The Pretrial Success Act will help ensure that people returning to the community have access to mental health and substance use disorder assessment, case management, and treatment according to clinical standards. Funding for transportation and child care will also be available to increase court appearance rates. By increasing access to services, the Pretrial Success Act will improve community safety through addressing the root causes of harm and violence.

The old money bond system required family members to pay for their loved ones’ freedom and further destabilized the communities already most impacted by violence by extracting millions of dollars from our state’s most marginalized neighborhoods. The Pretrial Success Act will help these communities heal by increasing access to these essential services. 

The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice thanks our legislative champions, Representative Maurice West & Senator Elgie Sims, for making the Pretrial Success Act possible. We also deeply appreciate our community partners and everyone who took the time to contact their legislators about this initiative.

While we are thrilled that implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act is going smoothly and that the legislature has allocated funds to support people awaiting trial, we know our work is not done. The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice is committed to continuing to work towards further reducing the number of people incarcerated awaiting trial in our state, supporting stronger and more independent public defense services, and limiting the state’s use of electronic monitoring.