Pontiac-area lawmakers still have concerns about the end of cash bail in Illinois
On Sept. 18, a new law took effect that changed the dynamic of criminal detention. The Safe-T Act has changed the requirements for keeping suspected criminals in jail before trial.
This new law was facing criticism from mostly Republican lawmakers and law enforcement agencies before it took effect, and those have not lightened up in the weeks since Sept. 18.
“This entire bill is just horrible,” Rep. Dennis Tipsword (R-105th) said in a recent interview with the Daily Leader. “I've been very openly sounding that alarm ever since January 2021, when it went in, of what this was going to look like when we got to this point.”
“It's been highly criticized, a number of groups have been concerned about it — law enforcement, state's attorneys,” Sen. Tom Bennett (R-53rd) remarked. “It was forced through the legislature on the final day of the 2021 Lame Duck session.”
Although it's an omnibus piece of legislation, in a very basic description, the Safe-T Act looks at setting bail standards for those accused of a crime.
Money bonds will no longer be used to make sure defendants return to court for trial and hearings, a practice criminal justice reform advocates argued penalized anyone who couldn't afford bail. Instead, only those defendants arrested for detainable offenses including Class 3 felonies and above can be held in jail until trial.
Those accused of violent crimes, sex assaults, gun crimes and domestic battery among others are also considered detainable in jail before a trial. But to deny a defendant pretrial release, prosecutors must within 48 hours of their arrest show by clear and convincing evidence a defendant is a flight risk or a danger to specific people or the community.
One of the lawmakers expressed concerns over the financial impact this will have on courts.
“Some of that money … went to services for the courts,” Bennett said. “Some of that money was used for social services for some of the victims. For me, those were two of the biggest concerns. We're still trying to figure where we are with things.”
Another aspect of the Safe-T Act is how much affects other legislation. Tipsword said that more than 250 laws are touched by this legislation.
“There's no way that anybody can look at all the potential outcomes of this, with all of these changes and know exactly how this bill is going to change our criminal justice system,” Tipsword said.
One of the arguments for this law was how bail affected different people in society. Tipsword stated that there was an unfair bond issue in the criminal system.
“If we would have taken bond and bail and how it is determined and how it is set on a single-subject bill and had good discussion, I guarantee we would have had bi-partisan support on something that would have truly fixed that.
“But when you throw 250-plus law changes at the wall, and you do it in a bill like the Safe-T Act, you are just creating havoc. You are not fixing anything,” Tipsword added.
“This is not working out the way that I think a lot of folks are wanting,” Rep. Jason Bunting (R-106th) said.
Tipsword said he hopes changes can be made in the future to the Safe-T Act.
“I truly believe you are innocent until you're proven guilty. I'm OK with putting people who are not a danger back home, not in jail. I'm not trying to fill a jail up, I believe in our system of law,” he added. “But there are those folks who have proven they don't deserve to walk among us as free people. Those folks are the ones we have to keep in jail because all they do is create another path of victims until we get them back in jail.”
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: End of cash bail in Illinois still receiving criticism from Pontiac-area lawmakers
