In every electoral cycle since the Pretrial Fairness Act was passed into law, opponents have used the end of money bail as a rhetorical punching bag aimed at unseating supporters of this historic civil rights legislation. For the third election cycle in a row, their fear mongering failed to convince voters into abandoning the elected officials who voted to address longstanding inequities in our state’s criminal court system.

Since Illinois ended money bail, rates of violent and property crime have decreased across the state, as has the number of people incarcerated pretrial. Each year, hundreds of millions of dollars that our state’s most marginalized communities would have had to use to purchase their loved ones’ freedom are now used  to pay for basic necessities and to support stability, making us all safer. 

Opponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act chose to ignore these facts, opting instead to spread lies. Yet again, they were rejected. By continuing to push false narratives and weaponize individual outlier cases, opponents of this law are doing a disservice to the people of Illinois. We all want safe communities, and continuing to lie about criminal legal reforms only disrupts the important and necessary work it will take to achieve safety. It is long past time for opponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act to put their boogieman to rest; the question is whether they are capable of abandoning their racist lies.