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Roundup: How Illinois navigated its first day of no cash bail
Tuesday, Sep 19, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Starting off in Lake County…
* More from that Lake County case…
* Sun-Times…
* Tribune…
* More…
* Daily Herald | ‘It went well’: As cashless bail starts in suburban courts, who was detained, who wasn’t: Of six first-appearance hearings — formerly known as bond hearings — held in Kane County, one defendant was detained on a domestic violence charge and another was detained on a stalking charge, Hull said. * Naperville Sun | Thanks to a low amount of cases and a lot of ‘pregame work,’ Kane County says it had successful first day of cashless bail system: Kane County Associate Judge Salvatore LoPiccolo, tasked with presiding over pretrial hearings Monday through Friday, saw six cases Monday. Four people were released without bail and two had detention hearings in the afternoon. Of the two, only one person was detained. * KSDK | Illinois enters new era without cash bail: In St. Clair County, the chief judge ordered staff to convert one courtroom into a space for detention hearings. […] The first day of preliminary hearings was merely a preview of the heavier lifting that begins on Tuesday when the sheriff’s deputies will transport defendants to the court to appear at their detention hearings in person and defense attorneys will help them make their case to go home. * WCIA | The SAFE-T Act is now in effect, and Central Illinois counties are navigating changes in courts, jails: In the Champaign County courtroom on Monday, Judge Brett Olmstead started arraignment by addressing the new cash bail system and explaining it to defendants. In one of the cases, the suspect was issued a bond over the weekend but was in court the day the SAFE-T Act went into effect. “It was a timing issue because we had one individual who was arrested over the weekend and the cash bond was set in weekend court, so there was a bit of confusion about what to do with him,” Julia Rietz, the Champaign County State’s Attorney, said. * WMBD | A new era dawns in Peoria County as No Cash Bail comes to local courtrooms: The other case, the second man, was more gray. Here, Assistant Public Defender Steve Glancy was able to argue that the crime, harassment through an electronic device, didn’t rise to the level of being a detainable offense. In the past, Glancy would have argued for a lower bond but not whether his client was held without bond pending trial. […] All of which convinced Donahue to release him but even then, there was confusion as Donahue, a long-time veteran of Peoria County courts, both as a judge and as a defense attorney, sought to put conditions on the man’s release such as electronic monitoring, a curfew and to check in with county probation officials. But unlike in the past, he had to put those in a written order. * KWQC | Confusion in Rock Island County courtroom as no-cash bail takes effect: One case involved Jason Wright. He’s been held for months on gun and drug charges. […] [His wife, Rebecka] watched each case for hints about what might happen to her husband. And while some high-level defendants were let go today, most were detained – including Jason Wright. The judge said he had about a quarter pound of cocaine and a “virtual arsenal” of guns in his house. * CBS Chicago | Illinois becomes first state to end cash bail: One of the first hearings in what was once bond court Monday was the case of Cortez Murphy. Prosecutors said Murphy, who was on an electronic ankle monitor for a burglary charge, damaged the monitor last week and fled from police as his bracelet siren activated. […] With those factors at play, the judge Murphy was a “high-level flight risk,” and his release was denied. Details, not dollars, determined that Murphy will stay locked up. * Herald Review | No-cash bail has its first day in Macon County court: The first arraignment case to be heard in Macon County Circuit Court under the new no-cash bail law turned out to be a Decatur teenager accused of an ambush stabbing murder. And a judge decided that particular defendant wasn’t going anywhere and had to remain in custody. But for most of the rest of the docket, heard over the course of an hour Monday afternoon, it was a different story: of the 12 cases in all that came up, Judge Lindsey Shelton found grounds to release nine defendants on charges ranging from domestic violence to battering police officers. * WCBU | First day of no-cash bail sees split decisions in Peoria County court: In Peoria, the first day saw only two hearings come before Circuit Court Judge Sean Donahue. In both instances, the State’s Attorney’s office filed petitions seeking to have the defendant detained until trial. […] Donahue sided with the defense and denied the petition to detain the defendant. However, he did impose pretrial conditions, including electronic monitoring, no contact with the victim and the victim’s family, a 7 p.m.-7 a.m. curfew, no possession of any weapons and no out-of-state travel without permission from pretrial services. * KFVS | Southern Ill. law enforcement raise concerns as state becomes first to end cash bail: [ Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich] began releasing inmates on Friday, in order to comply with the new law. As of Monday afternoon, he says a total of 40 inmates have been released since Friday evening. * WSPD | Local police chief, state’s attorney say they’re uncertain about outcomes after Illinois ends cash bail: Metropolis Police Chief Harry Masse said it’s his job to enforce the law, but he is concerned about the possible negative outcomes the SAFE-T Act could have on his community. “I hope I’m wrong. I’m hoping that you’ll come back next year and I’ll see nothing change. We haven’t had any offenders that we released on cashless bail do something more serious while they were awaiting trial,” he said. * BND | St. Clair County sets 1st hearings to decide whether defendants stay in jail before trial: Three detention hearings are scheduled in St. Clair County and one is scheduled in Madison County on Tuesday. No hearings were scheduled on Monday. * SJ-R | Cash bail ends in Illinois but further reform is still a possibility: The hearing requirement has some counties, particularly those downstate, concerned they lack the staff to meet demands. To account for an expected increased demand on public defenders, the state invested $10 million to create the Public Defender Fund where all counties outside of Cook County receive anywhere from $77,000 up to $147,555.
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- og - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 9:47 am:
Got a speeding ticket on 55. Had to go to court in Joliet. Was able to pay more so that the ticket wouldn’t go on my record. The disparities in our criminal justice system are right in front of our faces. Good on Illinois for addressing them. Money shouldn’t talk when it comes to our criminal justice system. It shouldn’t talk in politics either.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 9:49 am:
So, going forward… SAs and Sheriffs that pivot correctly by embracing that they will work tirelessly to do their job and keep people safe, and don’t explain how grossly inept they are and are useless in keeping people safe… will find political success.
I never understood how it’s politically smart to say doing your job inherently makes one inept. It’s a total loser… except to cultists.
The adults will pivot correctly.
One day does not make or break this Act in good or bad politics.
Understanding that telling folks over and over you can’t do your job is only going to lather up cultists that you likely will keep with you anyway.
- The Truth - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 9:55 am:
Congratulations to everyone who didn’t die on the first day of The Purge. /s
- Torco Sign - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 9:58 am:
The Lake County example is a bit misleading. He couldn’t buy his way out of jail for burglary because he was out on bail already. A big however: only certain types of burglars/burglaries qualify for denial of pretrial detainment.
And a question for the gallery: Our criminal justice is prejudiced. It targets poor people. So what percentage of defendants are buying their way out? If you want a policy like this to succeed, be honest with people about who it will apply to. This “buying their way out” example is like right-wing kooks talking about late-term abortion.
- H-W - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:01 am:
It appears to have gone well (across these stories). I wonder how long it will be before the Sheriff’s Association claims credit for making the SAFE-T Act work, and the States Attorneys go about taking credit for creating the SAFE-T Act. /s
A good law was created and passed. Let us now move forward to address other criminal acts, collaborative agreements to share and fund jails, and the nightmare of the current prison system.
The legislature can do this if they will simply agree to serve the people above their election interests.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:02 am:
Wait, according to some of the fine folks in Plainfield the media isn’t covering this issue./s
What these dopey SA’s don’t get (more likely they do get it but would rather play politics) is this is a tool that could be used to be even more of a “law and order” person and keep dangerous people locked up.
Sigh.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:20 am:
===I wonder how long it will be before the Sheriff’s Association claims credit for making the SAFE-T Act work, and the States Attorneys go about taking credit for creating the SAFE-T Act. /s===
It’s the correct political pivot, if they are smart enough to realize it and ignore the mouth-breathing silly.
- Highland IL - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:22 am:
Thought all the police in Illinois were supposed to quit. /s
- Lynn S. - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:29 am:
(Checks Wikipedia)
The population of Williamson County is 67,xxx.
(Uses Google)
The capacity of the Williamson County jail is 112 inmates.
I love Southern Illinois. It has natural vistas that are heartbreakingly beautiful.
But at what point are folks down there going to admit that making money off the misery of others not a good way to live?
At what point will the people of Southern Illinois give up their addiction to the dirty money they earn through the prison industrial complex that came to them under the administration of Jim Edgar, who was born within 25 miles of I-70 (one of the informal borders of Southern Illinois)?
At what point will the citizens of small town and rural Illinois start taxing themselves so that they can properly fund their local governments, rather than seeking dollars from Springfield and Washington, DC, or the extortion of their fellow citizens who are supposed to be assumed innocent until proven guilty of the crimes they are accused of, and were formerly forced to post bonds for? (Remember, even if you’re innocent, you automatically forfeited 10% of your bail money to the county clerk.)
Given their voting record over the last few decades, I’m pessimistic that the whining will stop before I shuffle off this mortal coil (an event that will hopefully not happen for at least 45 more years)?
- Hannibal Lecter - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:39 am:
=== The legislature can do this if they will simply agree to serve the people above their election interests. ===
Aren’t their election interests based on the viewpoints of their constituents? In other words, if you do not vote with your constituents, they will vote you out. That is a tough ask.
- Lynn S. - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:41 am:
An interesting little tidbit I learned after spending 3 straight nights observing Champaign County Board meetings for the next year’s fiscal budget:
In Champaign County, part of the sheriff’s budget is an assumption that every bed in the jail will be occupied every single day for the next year, and monies are set aside for the feeding of these illusory inmates.
In the 10th or 11th month of the fiscal year, the sheriff makes requests that the unused meal funds be reallocate to a different category, so that they can pay for training, or new equipment, or something that wasn’t in the original budget request.
It can be quite the little nice slush fund, and if jail populations decline, it may get even bigger.
If it’s happening in Champaign County, what are the odds it’s also happening in the other 101 counties of Illinois?
What if that money was instead used to pay for public defenders and other judicial administration costs these “law and order” types are now whinging on about?
What would those allocations look like?
Just a thought experiment…
- Frida's boss - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:51 am:
This policy will be effective. They will need to appropriate more funding for staff for judges as there will be real research that needs to happen before the pre-trial bond court.
Also, there will need to be more public defenders. Pls usually just write off bail as a quick negotiation and convince their client of the same. Now it’s a real deal to either get bail or have to make a researched argument that someone is not a risk. Overworked PDs are going to be the norm even more than they already are.
- TheInvisibleMan - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:51 am:
“At what point will the citizens of small town”
Never.
Places like that are in a positive feedback loop right now, of their own creation. And the word positive in that phrase isn’t a good thing, but a descriptor of the type of feedback loop.
I’ve mentioned it here before, but it would behoove a lot of local leaders to take a few trips to the western US and stop at a few ghost towns. Some of them were quite large, and many of them were larger than most rural Illinois communities. Bodie was once a town of 8000 residents. Now it’s a town of zero. There’s an unspoken assumption that any town which is there now will always be there. The reality of those towns continued existence is much more fragile than most realize.
- H-W - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 10:54 am:
@ Hannibal Lecter
Point well taken. On the other hand, leadership often requires helping constituents understand the complexity of issues, and helping them understand there are multiple paths toward a shared goal.
I think the past 15 years or so have been framed around separatism. My social marker is the rise of the Tea Party in places like Quincy, IL).
Good Republicans and Democrats must restore our State. They must help the citizenry and our communities regain a sense of shared interests, and shared commitments. This has been lacking for too long.
I sense you and I are on different sides of the equation, but I also sense you and I could work together. That is my broader hope for our legislature. Finding compromise is not hard. Selling it is.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 11:06 am:
Seriously, this changes arrestees from mass-produced widgets on a factory assembly line to patients in an ER, all with individual needs that require individualized attention.
Now [Sarcasm font on] aren’t some of the SAFE-T critics the same people who said … https://capitolfax.com/2018/05/09/hippies-are-gonna-make-us-kill-all-our-dogs/
- Hannibal Lecter - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 11:07 am:
H-W, I appreciate your sentiments. We are not necessarily on different sides of the equation, but oftentimes I just like to bring a different perspective to the problem. People interpret my comments in different ways, but I appreciate that you still see me as someone you could work with.
In terms of your comments on our citizenry, I think this is a national problem that is not unique to Illinois. I believe it has been caused by individuals being able to “choose their news” and hear exactly what they want to hear. It makes it incredibly difficult to communicate and persuade constituents when those constituents are not open to listening to viewpoints that are contrary to theirs. I have seen stark differences between the time I got involved in politics (roughly 2006-2007) to now. A good canvasser used to be able to pull votes from the opposite site. Nowadays, people at the doors repeat cable news talking points and pretty much stay within their partisan lanes. Not sure how this can be fixed, but it is really hurting democracy. Our politics cannot be foxed if we cannot even agree to one set of facts.
- Hannibal Lecter - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 11:10 am:
What I meant*** - A good canvasser used to be able to pull votes from the opposite side.
- This - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 11:20 am:
Politics is mostly about an ongoing dialogue of persuasion with skeptical voters downstate. Despite day one confusion, I hope most are able to make the challenging transition to a more just criminal justice system that makes the job of persuading a little bit easier for the blue team.
- Buford Pusser - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 11:42 am:
Whiteside county was way ahead of the curve in releasing accused criminals on no-cash bail. Mass murderer Nicholas Sheley was out no-cash bail when he killed eight people in 2012. Reporters asked Whiteside State’s Attorney Gary Spencer if Sheley was an informant, but got no answer. Spencer started his law (enforcement) career as a deputy.
- JoanP - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 11:55 am:
= Pls usually just write off bail as a quick negotiation and convince their client of the same. =
Assuming you meant “PDs”, that’s just wrong. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to tell a client we had a good, triable case, and it was the client who wanted the deal because the ASA was offering time served. Can’t say I blame them, but it was frustrating.
- Banish Misfortune - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 12:04 pm:
I am concerned that we are not hearing more about the bomb threats at libraries. All we hear is that this is awful. I wish we were hearing a little more about steps being taken to solve these crimes. For other crime sress, we get press conferences etc. statements by the police, task force announcements but here all we we get “just this is bad”.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 12:22 pm:
I would venture to guess that many of these rural county sheriffs are grossly overestimating the financial impact of the Safe T Act. Many of them are in low population areas and generally house small numbers of loac criminals. They make a tidy little sum house federal prisoners. I have not seen that pop up in any conversations to date. I would be very interested to see what those numbers look like.
- Dotnonymous x - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 1:01 pm:
Thousands of cops are fittin’ to quit…or was it just another empty threat.
- no relation - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 2:30 pm:
-JS Mill
Your post made me wonder if the bond money was lost what would be needed to make up the money. As Rich pointed out Fun With Numbers the total for Bond money collected outside of Cook was 83 million. The population of the state outside of Cook is about 7.5 million. If each of the non Cook residents would pitch in $11.00 this dreaded shortage of monies could be overcome. Depending on where I am eating this weekend I will forgo one or two before cocktails to cover my bill.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Sep 19, 23 @ 5:40 pm:
It’s not just that folks in small towns in iL are cheap, it’s that they often don’t have a lot of money.
One of the interesting things I’ve found from having a vac home in small town Iowa is that some things are more expensive there. Electricity, garbage, water. And this makes sense. The garbage collectors in Berwyn hit 24-32 houses per block when they go through the alley. In the small town they may hit 12. And then there are a lot more blocks of people in Berwyn. The same is true of the electricity and water. A lot less pipe or electric grid is needed per person in dense areas than in non-dense areas.
So there is a low density cost to pay. Wages tend to be lower, too. And less education levels (because the people who are educated from the small towns usually go off to larger communities for work). There’s some tight fistedness, too, don’t get me wrong.