Chicago City Wire

A 2020 study by Loyola University confirmed that crime in Chicago actually increased after bail reform was enacted despite claims to the contrary, according to Chicago Contrarian. 

In 2017, Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court Timothy Evans implemented General Order No. 18.8A which stated that no one could be jailed in Cook County due to an inability to afford bond. The order increased the amount of defendants on pretrial release.

“When setting bail, there shall be a presumption that any conditions of release imposed shall be non-monetary in nature, and the court shall impose the least restrictive conditions or combination of conditions necessary to reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant for further court proceedings," Evans mandated in the Order. “Said conditions shall include conditions necessary to ensure the defendant does not pose a real and present threat to the physical safety of any person. The court shall consider the defendant's social and economic circumstances when setting conditions of release.”

15 months after the reform was put in place, Evans' Office released a report studying the impact of General Order No. 18.8A which indicated that there had been no increase in crime as a result of increased numbers of defendants on pretrial release and that the Cook County Jail populations had been decreased with no threat to public safety. 

Chicago Tribune reporters later disputed Evans' report when they found that its definition of "violent crime" excluded serious violent crimes including domestic battery, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, armed violence and reckless homicide. This oversight allowed for hundreds of violent offenses to be omitted from the report. The Tribune also uncovered that Evans’ previous claim that only three defendants released under the new pre-trial procedures had been charged with homicide while on pretrial release was a fabrication and exposed that actually 21 defendants were charged with murder during the 15-month period analyzed in Evans’ report.

A Loyola University study of General Order No. 18.8A claimed that there was no “statistically significant change in the odds of released defendants being charged with new criminal activity after G.O. 18.8A.” It also states that of the 9,200 defendants, 500 of which would be been denied bail prior to G.O. 18.8A, 17.1% of those released re-offended, three percent of whom went on to commit a violent crime.

According to those numbers, a total of 1,573.2 new crimes were committed by defendants while on pretrial release, 285 of which are violent crimes. By comparison, without G.O. 18.8A, 8,700 defendants would have been released leading to 1,488 new crimes, 260 of which would have been violent crimes.