Chicago City Wire

The cashless bail era in Illinois begins on Sept. 18, and the transition to first such statewide bail system in the country “won’t be the smooth as advocates hope,” Jim Kaitschuk, Executive Director of the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, told Chicago City Wire.

Kaitschuk said that a committee formed under the Illinois Supreme Court, the Pretrial Implementation Task Force, that held meetings through 2022 helped from a discussion point of view, but they really won’t know how implementation will go until they move forward.

“It will be a two-tiered system for a while,” Kaitschuk said referring to bail arrangements made in arrests before the 18th. “And we are discussing with all the counties but there will be some inconsistencies among them. “

“I’m sure there will be modifications proposed during the veto session,” he added, “but I’m not sure if the system will be running long enough to know what those modifications should be.”

The General Assembly’s veto session is scheduled for Oct. 24, 25 and 26, and Nov. 7, 8 and 9.

Approved in 2021, the cashless bail provision, the Pretrial Fairness Act, of the SAFE-T Act was originally scheduled for implementation on Jan. 1 of this year but was suspended when a Kankakee County judge in December 2022 ruled that the provision was unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court reversed that ruling on July 18.

Chris Bonjean, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court, said that the Pretrial Implementation Task Force worked throughout 2022 holding town halls, education sessions and preparing extensive resource materials.  

“This went right up to the original implementation date of Jan. 1, 2023," Bonjean wrote in an email. "Due to the pending court case, that was then paused as the Supreme Court heard the appeal and rendered its decision on July 18, 2023.”

“The Supreme Court determined that education and training going forward would best be handled by the Illinois Judicial College,” he said.

The College announced on Aug. 24 that it created the Committee on Pretrial Education (CPTE) as its seventh Standing Committee.

Krystal Rodriquez, Policy Director of the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, believes that the long lag time between passage of the act and its implementation will help with the transition.

“I can’t say that it will go absolutely smoothly, but they have had a long time to prepare for this,” she told Chicago City Wire.

The sheriffs and the state’s prosecutors brought the lawsuit that led to the December 2022 ruling that the Pretrial Fairness Act was unconstitutional.

Many victims’ rights groups opposed the change as well.

For an earlier story, Patricia Wenskunas, Founder/CEO of Crime Survivors Inc., said that the crime rate will almost certainly increase under a cashless bail system.

“The offenders get back on the street right away, and now will have no reason to show up and face justice,” Wenskunas said. “The first thing they’re going to do is go after the one who got them arrested in the first place. You’re revictimizing the victims with this law.”

In August 2022, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office released an analysis of the impact of the two-year long program, the “Emergency Bail Release” program to lower its prison population to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

The DA found that the rate of recidivism was far higher for those who paid no bail.

"In this study, individuals released on zero bail were subsequently rearrested for a total of 163% more crimes than individuals released on bail," the study noted.

“Despite all of our best efforts to try and stop the practice, we were forced to continue to do the zero bail system and we saw our communities suffer as a result. We saw more victimization," DA Jeff Reisig told Fox News.