Four years ago this week, General Order 18.8A went into effect and began reducing the number of people incarcerated pretrial in Cook County Jail due to unaffordable money bonds. This historic court rule, won through the advocacy efforts of the Coalition to End Money Bond, reduced the number of people incarcerated in the jail to its lowest number in more than 30 years. When the order went into effect September 18, 2017, there were an average of 7,500 people in Cook County Jail on any given day. General Order 18.8A reduced the use of money bond by 50% and the number of people in Cook County Jail to 6,000 per day within three months and has maintained this reduction for over four years. Today, there are around 5,600 people in Cook County Jail. Since the order went into effect, tens of thousands fewer people have been booked into Cook County Jail and avoided the harms of incarceration. As a result, thousands of people have been able to keep their jobs, housing, and even custody of their children.

While General Order 18.8A has positively impacted tens of thousands of people and improved community safety by allowing people to await trial in their communities and avoid the trauma and instability caused by jail, it did not end wealth-based pretrial incarceration. On August 31, 2021, there were 1,272 people incarcerated in Cook County Jail because they couldn’t afford to pay a money bond. That was 22% of the people in jail, or one out of every five people. The majority of them, over 650 people, had been incarcerated for more than six months due solely to their inability to pay. Three-quarters (74%) of everyone jailed on an unpaid money bail is Black and another 16% are Latinx. And in the other 101 counties across Illinois, thousands of people are caged in county jails because they can’t afford to purchase their freedom.

That’s why we organized alongside our partners in the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice to pass the Pretrial Fairness Act earlier this year. The PFA will completely end money bond and dramatically reduce the number of people incarcerated while awaiting trial when it goes into full effect in January 2023. This monumental victory was made possible by organized pressure from communities across Illinois that demanded a complete end to wealth-based pretrial incarceration, but that vision continues to face opposition from law enforcement. It is essential that we remain organized and defend the Pretrial Fairness Act. Over the last four years, General Order 18.8A has proven that we can reduce pretrial incarceration without endangering community safety. It’s time to end wealth-based jailing everywhere in Illinois!