5/2/2022
At the McLean County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC),1 the heads of local law enforcement, attorneys, and judges heard a presentation about the possible consequences come January 1st, 2023. This is when the Pre-Trial Fairness Act, part of the omnibus criminal justice reform passed last year, will go into effect. The most dramatic change is the complete elimination of cash bail for those facing criminal charges pre-trial.
Dr. David Olson of Loyola University in Chicago presented “Estimating the impact of the Pretrial fairness act (PFA): Trends and Patterns of Arrests and Pretrial Supervision/Custody in the 11th Circuit“. The Pre-Trial Fairness Act separates crimes into detainable and non-detainable. Most misdemeanors and minor crimes are non-detainable meaning a judge must release the individual pre-trial unless there is sufficient evidence to suggest that person is a danger to public safety or flight risk. Over 500 crimes in Illinois remain detainable including:
- All non-probationable, forcible felonies (the most common are murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, home invasion, and vehicular hijacking);
- All sex crimes (all forms of criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual abuse, child pornography related charges, and various charges relating to sexual misconduct with children and human trafficking);
- All domestic violence charges (misdemeanor and felony domestic battery and violations of orders of protection);
- All non-probationable gun-related felonies (including all forms of discharge of a firearm, sale of firearms, and most forms of possession of a firearm);
- All new arrests when someone is on Pretrial release or probation; and
- Any serious felony where there is a high likelihood of willful flight.
An unknown that comes with the abolition of cash bail is how will the composition of county jails change. From 2017-2021, there were 2,841,000 arrests made in the 11th Judicial District.2 Of those, 2,305,600 (81.15%) would not be detainable pre-trial (unless the defendant is already on pre-trial release at time of arrest). The other 535,400 (18.85%) arrests are detainable under the pre-trial fairness act.
From 2017-2019, McLean County had 842 (73%) people facing felony charges who were released pre-trial. Another 82 (7%) were under pre-trial supervision, and 218 (19%) individuals facing felony charges.
There are several possible outcomes to the abolition of cash bail regarding jail composition. One possibility is the incarcerated populations in jails will decrease. Another is that people who had previously been given bonds, would not be eligible for release pre-trial meaning jail numbers would actually increase. Another possibility is jail numbers will remain the same, but the types of crimes people are incarcerated for will change.
With the abolition of cash bail, pre-trial service departments will have to dramatically expand. These departments monitor defendants released pre-trial through house arrest, electronic monitoring, drug testing, check-ins, etc. The state will gradually centralize pre-trial services over the next several years. Some Illinois counties have no pre-trial services departments. McLean County would not be fully centralized into the central state apparatus until much later because the McLean County pre-trial services department is more advanced.
Mike Donovan, who runs McLean County’s Pre-trial Services Department, says his department is currently fully staffed (roughly 76 employees). According to Donovan, his employees are some of the best trained in the state. He says this can be a double-edged sword as the best employees are the first to be offered better, higher paying jobs with the state. He believes many of his employees will take those opportunities meaning new employees will need to be hired & trained. He was unable to offer an estimate of what staff size he will need once cash bail is abolished.
The CJCC members commented on how the new law will present many challenges, but they believe they’ll be able to handle them as they come. The next CJCC meeting is July 21st, 2022 at noon.
