A growing number of pretrial defendants out on bond are being charged with new crimes. | iStock
A growing number of pretrial defendants out on bond are being charged with new crimes. | iStock
One thing Chicagoans can’t help but notice when scrolling through news feeds: the number of violent crimes committed by defendants while they were out either on parole, probation or awaiting trial.
That’s not surprising given the long-term decarceration trend in Cook County that’s left the county’s jail population at the lowest level in 40 years. Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans started a no bail/low cash bail policy in 2017, resulting in a growing number of pretrial defendants out on bond who are then charged with new crimes, as we reported here. The state’s new SAFE-T Act has taken that policy even further. In September 2023, Illinois became the first state in the country to eliminate cash bail altogether, while the law also reduced the types of crimes for which defendants could be detained before their trial.
The big question in 2024 is how will the SAFE-T Act impact crime, everything else equal. It’s still far too early to determine whether there are more violent defendants out on the streets awaiting trial and, unfortunately, the government is far behind on releasing the relevant data on that, according to a recent BGA report.
Nevertheless, Chicagoans have a right to be concerned considering just how many stories there are of released defendants committing mayhem. Many make the news every day, but it’s hard to know just how prevalent they are among the sea of other crimes committed.
That’s why we’ve compiled a short sample list of defendants – those on parole, probation or awaiting trial – who’ve been accused of committing violent crimes since the start of the new year. Our source is CWB Chicago, which does a great job of tracking and publishing the city’s daily crimes.
- January 2 – A 21-year-old man shot another man in the face while on bail for one gun case and on probation for another. According to CWB, he was the “30th person accused of shooting, killing, or trying to shoot or kill someone in Chicago in 2023 while awaiting trial for a felony.”
- January 7 – A 31-year-old man and former CVS employee robbed a CVS while on probation for robbing and burglarizing a CVS.
- January 14 – A 19-year-old gang member shot and critically injured another man in Little Village just three months after getting probation for head-butting a Chicago cop. Prosecutors also dropped a felony gun case on the day he pleaded guilty to the battery.
- January 18 – A 19-year-old man killed his girlfriend while on probation for a gun charge.
- January 27 – An 18-year-old man with gang ties gunned down an airport employee while on juvenile probation for gun possession.
- February 4 – A 56-year-old man killed ex-girlfriend while on parole for strangling his previous partner.
- February 6 – A 32-year-old man and previous 8-time felon burglarized a restaurant while on probation for burglarizing a nail salon.
- February 6 – A 16-year-old male allegedly stabbed and killed a man while on parole for attempted murder. Earlier, he was found in possession of a stolen motor vehicle while on that same parole. That case was dropped.
- February 7 – A 20 year-old man was charged with ‘brutal attack’ of a woman at Chicago Union Station after being released on similar charges under cashless bail law.
- February 12 – A 33-year-old tow truck driver with two counts of attempted murder after he opened fire on two competitors over a job, while on felony pretrial release.
- February 13 – A 19-year-old man was caught carrying three guns on CTA less than a month after being placed on “first-time weapon offender probation” for another felony gun case.
- February 14 – An 18-year-old man killed an Uber driver while on juvenile probation for robbery. He also previously served time in the juvenile justice center for carjacking in 2021.
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Some are expressing hope in the latest crime numbers for 2024 (through early-February), which show major crimes down 18% and murders down 30%. But with just a little over a month behind us, it’s premature to make any conclusions given the city is coming off of post-covid record-high crime numbers.
Major crimes in 2023 were up over by 16% over 2022 and by 55% over 2019, before covid and the George Floyd.
As mentioned above, we’re going to have to wait for new data to reach any conclusions.
But from the data we do know since the SAFE-T Act was passed – the Cook County jail population is down 15%, electronic monitoring is down 10%, and detention appeals have skyrocketed – proponents of softer crime policies are getting what they want.
And, it appears, Chicago’s criminal class is getting what they want, too.
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