In March, an Illinois appellate court ruled that Ms. Wanda Evans’ $250,000 bond had to be reconsidered because Cook County judges imposed the bond without adequately exploring other options for her pretrial release. Ms. Evans, who is 58 years old, received the quarter million dollar bond after being accused of attempting to steal $750 worth of merchandise from a Menard’s. (As the appellate court noted, she was apprehended by store personnel in the parking lot and was not alleged to have even completed the theft.) Cook County Judge Peter Felice set this exorbitant bond despite Ms. Evans’ statement she couldn’t afford to pay more than $200. By setting such a high bond amount, the trial court violated Ms. Evans’ right to a presumption of release, which requires that judges impose the least restrictive conditions of release to ensure an accused person appears in court proceedings and ensure the safety of the public. 

Ms. Evans’ attorneys from the Cook County Public Defender’s office filed a motion to have her bond lowered to $10,000 (requiring payment of $1,000), but a new judge, Judge Steven Rosenblum, denied that motion. Judge Rosenblum cited Ms. Evans’ previous history with the criminal legal system. Following the denial of her motion at the trial court level, the Cook County’s Public Defender took Ms. Evans’ case to the court of appeals. Ultimately, an Illinois appellate panel sided with Ms. Evans and overturned the huge money bond. The appellate judges ruled in Ms. Evans’ favor because the lower court judges court failed to take into consideration her ability to pay the bond or to consider other conditions of release that would not have resulted in her pretrial jailing. Money bonds are a condition of release, and by law, they are not supposed to be set in unaffordable amounts that cause people to be incarcerated while awaiting trial. The appellate court also noted that Cook County judges failed to consider less restrictive alternatives to incarceration before setting a money bond, as they are required to by Illinois law. 

Unfortunately, by the time the appellate court ruled in her favor, Ms. Evans had already been incarcerated for over three months. The same day the appellate court ruling was received by the trial court, she pled guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison. Ms. Evans’ situation is unfortunately very common: one study found that people incarcerated pretrial are 25% more likely to plead guilty than people who were released, 43% more likely to be sentenced to additional incarceration, and their sentences are more than twice as long.

Ms. Evans’ bond is a clear example of how judges ignore the law and violate people’s rights by using unaffordable money bonds to jail poor people while they await trial. In her case, two different Cook County judges were willing to completely ignore the legal requirement to release Ms. Evans on a bond she could afford to pay or justify her detention. The current system allows judges to use money bond to incarcerate people who the law says should be released and does not even require a justification. This practice decimates lives and fuels mass incarceration. This is exactly why the Illinois legislature acted to end this injustice by passing the Pretrial Fairness Act in January 2021. The Pretrial Fairness Act will completely end money bond and affirm the presumption of release by ensuring that only the least restrictive non-monetary conditions of release are set in all cases. 

When Republicans and law enforcement call to repeal the Pretrial Fairness Act, they are calling to maintain an unjust system of wealth-based incarceration. Every year, more than 250,000 people are incarcerated in Illinois’ jails, and most of them are caged only because they can’t afford to pay a bond. This system has torn apart communities and harmed people who haven’t even been convicted of a crime. The Pretrial Fairness Act provides a better system: one that values the presumption of innocence and makes sure that everyone’s right to a presumption of release is honored.