By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
A full year into the state’s end of cash bail, a suburban county state’s attorney says the law has been “an abject failure” for his county.
Illinois ended cash bail statewide in September 2023 after litigation against the law was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Pretrial Fairness Act is part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity Today, or SAFE-T, Act.
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said the data in his county doesn’t show what proponents promised.
“There was a 30% increase in crime by those on pretrial release compared to those on cash bail,” Kenneally told The Center Square.
Contrary to proponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act who said the law would decrease jail populations, Kenneally said he found the opposite in his county.
“On the eve of the SAFT-T Act, on Sept. 17, 2023, there were 204 people in the McHenry County Jail and on Sept. 15 of 2024, which is exactly one year counting for the leap year, there were 216 people in the McHenry County Jail,” Kenneally said.
The findings didn’t stop there. Kenneally said there was a 280% increase in the number of criminal defendants who didn’t appear for their hearings. But one area he highlighted with the end of cash bail is the diminished victim’s compensation fund.
“If people are no longer required to put down any deposit of money, what that means is that even if you say, ‘hey, you have to pay a victim this amount in restitution’ … a very little amount of that money is being paid,” he said.
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