Separating Claims and Facts about No Cash Bail
In a recent email to his constituents, State Sen. Bob Peters, 13th District, attempted to separate fact from fiction swirling around the new no cash bail system in Illinois.
The state’s outdated pretrial system came to an end on July 18, when The Pretrial Fairness Act (PTA) was upheld as constitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court, ensuring the end of money bond and the implementation of a fairer legal system based on safety, not wealth, would become state law.
“Simply put,” he wrote, “cash bail only hurts low-income and middle-class families.”
Claims and Facts
As with most advancements in civil rights and equity in America, Senator Peters wrote, there are people who wanted to keep the state’s unfair cash bail system in place. He shared some of the false claims coming from those who favored the “wealth-based” pretrial system of the past:
Claim: People will not be arrested for crimes anymore after Sept. 18, when the PFA took effect.
Fact: Nothing in the Pretrial Fairness Act prevents anyone from being arrested for committing crimes. People arrested on violent charges are still able to be held in jail pending trial, and if someone is arrested for a violent offense while already on pretrial release for another crime, judges can deny release until trial.
Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, persons accused of crimes that present a real and present threat to a person or the community can be held in jail until their trial without the option of paying bail.
Claim: Police will be banned from removing trespassers from your home starting Sept. 18.
Fact: This is false. There is nothing banning police from removing trespassers from your home. The police maintain the discretion to arrest anyone who poses an obvious threat to the community, to any person, or to their own safety.
Claim: People currently incarcerated will be released after Sept. 18.
Fact: After Sept. 18, judges will still have the ability to detain people. While those persons may request a hearing, any person charged with a crime that presents a real and present threat to a person or the community may be denied pretrial release.
Claim: This will impact victim services funding.
Fact: If funding for abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault victim services is cut back, it’s because the federal government changed its funding formula for the Crime Victims Fund this year — not because of action at the state level. Illinois continues to invest in programs that assist crime victims and the community organizations that serve them.
The Pretrial Fairness Act is extremely important for survivors and crime victims. For example, it expands opportunities for survivors to file for protective orders and ensures they are entitled to timely notification about hearings, including the first hearing after a person is arrested. In fact, the Pretrial Fairness Act was supported by numerous survivors and crime victims’ rights organizations.
Claim: Without bond, people won’t show up for trial.
Fact: The vast majority of people on pretrial release comply with the terms of their release, show up for court dates and are not rearrested on a new accusation. A study by the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts found that fewer than 4% of people on electric monitoring between 2016 and 2020 were rearrested. The Pretrial Fairness Act expands the use of electric monitoring to ensure judges have the tools they need to uphold public safety.
According to Sen. Peters’ email, if you want to be sure the news about the SAFE-T Act or the Pretrial Fairness Act is accurate, you can check out the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation and Senate House Bill hb3653.org. They are all reputable sources on this historic legislation.
