SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of eliminating the state’s cash bail system, and now sheriffs in the state are bracing for more crime and more victims that result from more criminals being released on the streets.
“Folks who live here are extremely concerned,” Franklin County Sheriff Kyle Bacon told Fox News. “It’s an experiment on the backs of victims of crime. I have serious concerns and so do the people that live here.”
The state’s highest court issued the ruling on Tuesday. It goes into effect Sept. 18, making Illinois the first state to fully abolish cash bail.
Under the new requirement, judges across Illinois will no longer require those charged with a crime to post bail in order to be released from jail as they await trial. However, a judge can still make a subjective determination if the defendant is a threat to the public or a flight risk, but we’ve seen how ineffective that method can be as the propensity for ongoing crime frequently gets minimized in the sterile courtroom environment.
“We were preparing for this, but then we just kind of hit the pause button,” Bacon said. “And now the scramble is back on for law enforcement, prosecutors. It is discouraging.”
“The flaws of it are going to be revealed even more and trying to fix that issue is going to be a nonstop process,” Bacon predicted.
According to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard, law enforcement personnel and prosecuting attorneys will be the ones who bear the brunt of these changes.
“We did our job. We arrested them, incarcerated them,” Bullard told Fox, “and then the state’s attorney makes the argument that they should be remanded for trial, and the judge, based on the SAFE-T Act guidelines, says, ‘Now I’m forced to let them go.’”
“That’s going to increase crime victim frustration … and we share that frustration with them,” he said.
“Any new victim – that’s on the system,” Bullard continued. “That’s on the people who allowed that to take place, not recognizing the public safety danger.”
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau expressed grave concerns as he assessed the new law.
“When I said that this is the most dangerous law I’ve ever seen, I believe that,” Pekau said.
Bacon pointed out the obvious ramifications regarding the highly controversial and problematic circumstances.
“We have 100 people sitting in jail or requiring cash bond. What happens with that? We have literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of arrest warrants that are assigned a cash bond. What happens with that?” Bacon queried. “All of these questions exist and, quite honestly, I sit here and have no idea what the answers are.”
