Ten years ago today, a small group of community, faith, and policy organizations came together to explore forming a coalition aimed at ending money bond and reducing pretrial jailing in Cook County. They would go on to establish the Coalition to End Money Bond and the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice. 

Now, 10 years later, Illinois is the first state in the country to have completely ended the use of money bond in our pretrial system, and we have begun making significant reductions in the number of people jailed while awaiting trial. Our collective work has helped ensure that hundreds of thousands of people who would have been jailed pretrial have been able to return to their communities and families as their cases progress. We also helped pass the FAIR Act to establish a statewide office of public defense, and we launched the Pretrial Success Grants Program to increase access to essential resources that support the success of people awaiting trial. And with the anticipated end of the Cook County Sheriff’s electronic program by the end of 2026, Cook County will have shut down one of the largest and most restrictive pretrial surveillance programs in the country.

On this anniversary, we want to thank our movement partners, elected allies, and the tens of thousands of everyday people who joined us in raising their voices against the unjust money bond system. These transformative changes to Illinois’ pretrial legal system would not have been possible without your acts of solidarity. 

While the Pretrial Fairness Act has kept millions of dollars in our state’s most marginalized communities by ending the practice of charging people for their freedom while awaiting trial, we have more work to do in order to realize the full possibility of the law. Though many communities have seen a dramatic reduction in pretrial jailing, there are several counties where prosecutors and judges are abusing the law to prevent people from returning to their families, homes, and jobs while awaiting trial. There are also parts of the law that the courts have failed to properly implement, like meaningfully reviewing detention at every court date and the data collection and publication system that was supposed to be launched alongside implementation of the law. Finally, racial disparities continue to persist in county jails across our state due to segregation, unequal distribution of risk and opportunity, and racist policing practices.

We remain committed to continuing the long hard work of realizing the full potential of the Pretrial Fairness Act. As we do that work, we will also continue to defend this historic civil rights legislation. Even though violent and property crime have significantly decreased since the law was implemented, Republicans and many law enforcement officials continue to spread lies about the law that are rooted in racism and political opportunism. We call on our partners across the state to join us in seeing this fight through—our communities are depending on us, and the rest of the country is watching.
Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of people languish in their jails simply because they can’t afford to pay a money bond. Illinois is a light in the darkness. By continuing to defend the Pretrial Fairness Act and working to improve implementation and further reduce pretrial jailing, we can show the rest of the country a way out of the unjust money bond system and begin dismantling the prison industrial complex. Let’s keep the fire burning as we work towards a world where freedom doesn’t come with a price tag.