Across the country, we’re seeing movements achieve historic wins for fairness, racial justice, public health, and public safety. A new law ending cash bail in Illinois. Prosecutors in California, who care more about fairness than punishment. Marijuana legalization in New York that reinvests in communities. Yet prosecutors and police are fighting back with the same polarizing scare tactics that created mass incarceration to perpetuate it. We must demand justice not fear.
The honest truth about bail reform written by criminal justice experts
Law enforcement officials dehumanized a New Yorker in a series of depraved news articles and social media posts about a man arrested multiple times in the city’s transit system.
Fact Check: False, Cruel
Beyond fearmongering and lying about bail reform, the articles and posts prove the point that law enforcement care only about jailing more New Yorkers. NYPD named the wrong judge and wrong DA in its critical posts. Above all, law enforcement’s attacks on the man are cruel and serve to obfuscate NYPD’s own ineptitude and ineffectiveness.
A study on the effects of bail reform concludes, once again, that bail reform does not increase crime. Eliminating the ability of judges to detain someone accused of a crime does not drive crime and may in fact reduce crime.
Fact Check: Bail Reform Works
Due to a mistaken belief about relevant legal standards, the study makes an incorrect conclusion relating to recidivism in people charged with bail eligible crimes.
Following the arrest of a man awaiting trial on electronic monitoring, Sheriff Dart claimed his office was unable to track his whereabouts because of the essential movement provisions of the Pretrial Fairness Act.
Fact Check: FALSE
There is nothing in Illinois law requiring the Sheriff to stop tracking individuals on electronic monitoring.
Law enforcement, political leaders, and media outlets have seized the story of an assault on a police officer to baselessly link the incident to New York’s bail reform laws.
Fact Check: False
Not only does the case have nothing to do with bail reform, but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been transparent in its challenge of identifying the people responsible and their relative levels of culpability. Innocent people should not be jailed indefinitely.
A Will County Judge blamed the Pretrial Fairness Act for his inability to detain Kyleigh Cleveland-Singleton, who has been charged with obstruction of justice, a class 4 non-violent felony. She was not accused of any violence.
Fact Check: FALSE
Class 4 non-violent felony offenses were not detainable offenses even prior to the Pretrial Fairness Act. The only option a judge had under the old system was to order a money bond, which if paid, would guarantee an individual’s release.
In an interview with WSPY News, State’s Attorney Eric Weis suggests that the elimination of cash bail creates a “release and reoffend” cycle that is causing an increase in cases. “You know, certain people can’t be held, so they go out commit crime [sic], get released, they go out and commit a crime, get released, and again, the numbers just continue to go up,” said S.A. Weis.
Fact Check: FALSE
While the Pretrial Fairness Act does eliminate the use of wealth-based pretrial incarceration, and mandates that many arrested individuals are given a chance to succeed on pretrial release, it does not eliminate the court’s ability to jail someone awaiting trial.
“There is no ability to detain a sex offender who has refused to register, a fentanyl dealer, or someone who steals a vehicle, and that is all absurd to me,” said Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Row in the Daily Journal.
Fact Check: FALSE
Under the Pretrial Fairness Act, all Class 3 felonies and above are detainable offenses for which someone can be denied release when certain findings are made. Failure to register, distribution of controlled substances, and possession of a stolen vehicle are all felony offenses for which pretrial release may now be denied when certain findings are made—and which were not eligible for detention prior to the new law. Judges could only order a money bond, which if paid, would guarantee an individual’s release. Now judges have the power to deny release altogether when someone poses a risk of intentionally evading prosecution.
A recent op-ed written by a Manhattan Institute fellow is littered with misleading or outright false claims, misconstrued data, and logical fallacies about the effect of discovery reform.
Fact Check: False
The truth is discovery reform does not cause crime and does not create any additional burden for law enforcement to furnish evidence to people charged with crimes.
A report from the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance found that media coverage of pretrial reform was “incomplete, and in some cases, inaccurate."
Fact Check: Misleading
The research is yet another example that demonstrates the way sensational and cynical news coverage undermines public safety by misleading readers about the effects of common sense criminal justice reforms.
A state senator has proposed a plan to incarcerate more people in a misguided attempt to reduce car thefts.
Fact Check: Misleading
There are already serious consequences for car theft, and Senator Jeremy Cooney’s overbroad bill fails to acknowledge the devastating implications of pretrial detention and the root causes of crime and instances of harm.
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser told the Aurora Beacon about a woman with mental health issues who has been repeatedly trespassing at a home and claimed that there is nothing prosecutors can do to keep her away from the house other than for police to cite and release her.
Fact Check: FALSE
Trespass to Residence is a Class A misdemeanor or a Class 4 felony. There is no requirement that police cite and release people for those levels of charges. Even if she was being charged with a lower level version of trespass, police would have been able to arrest this individual during the initial incident had she presented a danger to others. After the initial citation was issued, police could have arrested her if she continued to engage in criminal behavior. Prosecutors would also be able to charge the person with violating the terms of their pretrial release, and a judge could hold them in custody for that violation.
"Under the new system, there's only one option: detention. Otherwise, the individual who is charged with potentially very serious crimes walks out the door without paying a dime." Madison County State's Attorney Tom Haine in the Edwardsville Intelligencer
Fact Check: False
The Pretrial Fairness Act eliminated money bond as a condition of release, but prosecutors can still ask for and judges can still order many other conditions of release.
"The number of people incarcerated at Cook County Jail has dropped to a near-all-time low since the statewide abolition of cash bail took effect in September. But despite the success in the Chicago area, the state has still failed to comply with key transparency and accountability portions of the Pretrial Fairness Act intended to ensure judges apply the bond reform law fairly across Illinois."
"The Cook County Jail population has dipped below 5,000 for only the second time in nearly four decades, a drop experts are linking to Illinois’ historic elimination of cash bail on Sept. 18."
"As researchers who study the use of electronic monitoring throughout the United States, we are concerned. No research shows that EM leads to better outcomes as compared to people being released without a monitor."
"Reflecting on their experiences, Brooks and Ross said being locked up pretrial harmed their chances in court. 'You’re automatically stigmatized if you’re incarcerated and you’re fighting your case, especially Black women,' Brooks said. They hope the new law will change that for others in Illinois."
"But bottom-line, it simply isn’t fair for people charged with low-level and nonviolent crimes to bide their time in jail while they await trial solely because they don’t have the cash more privileged suspects can withdraw within minutes."
"Wealth-based jailing has been brought up in our legislature twice, effectively placed on the ballot and heard by the courts. It is time to roll up our sleeves and see this historic reform through. Continuing to attempt to sabotage the law’s implementation will not only ignore the will of Illinoisans, but it will also put public safety at risk."
"It is not the purpose of bail to serve as a symbol of our society's appreciation for the dangerous work that law enforcement professionals do. Our laws express that appreciation quite clearly already, providing stronger charges and longer sentences for crimes committed against them. But bail that for most people would amount to pretrial incarceration? That's not what our bail laws are meant to do."
"The study found that rates of murder, larceny, and motor vehicle theft rose after the bail reform, but the increase may have been due to the pandemic instead of bail reform. The authors controlled for the impact of the pandemic by constructing a comparison group of other states also affected by the pandemic but without bail reform in the same period. After comparing New York State with the comparison group, the study found that the rate of increase in crimes in New York State was insignificant."
"Fulfilling the promise of a fairer criminal legal system requires firm commitment to the 2019 landmark law — not a retreat from it that will absolve prosecutors of their obligations and have devastating consequences for people awaiting trial. We urge state legislators to resist the governor’s and prosecutors’ attempt to weaken our discovery laws. Justice depends on it."
"The idea that people should be released before trial and only locked up as punishment after they have been convicted of a crime is actually a fundamental aspect of the American justice system. Holding people in pretrial detention has traditionally been the exception, not the rule."
"Governor Hochul and those who support her policies on policing and pretrial justice are now campaigning to ensure that more people suffer horrific deaths in jail before any determination of guilt, and that cops remain empowered to terrorize with impunity."
"If lawmakers are serious about reducing crime, they should continue their efforts to reduce pretrial jailing, end excessive sentencing, and make investments in communities that address needs. The safest communities have good schools, well paid jobs, stable housing, access to quality health care, including mental health care, drug treatment, and more. This is where policymakers should be directing their focus."
