Cashless Bail Upheld By Illinois Supreme Court

SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of the SAFE-T Act, meaning the state is one of the first in the country to OK a cashless bail system.

In a 5-2 decision, the state’s highest court upheld the SAFE-T Act, which Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law last year. The cashless bail system was to go into place on Jan. 1, but was held up by legal challenges in a series of lawsuits brought by prosecutors and county sheriffs around the state.

A judge in Kankakee County ruled in December that the SAFE-T Act was unconstitutional, which kept the law and cashless bail from going into effect at the start of the year. But Tuesday’s decision allows the SAFE-T Act to go into effect in a ruling praised by Pritzker and other state officials.

The law goes back into effect. Sept. 18.

“We can now move forward with historic reform to ensure pre-trial detainment is determined by the danger an individual poses to the community instead of by their ability to pay their way out of jail,” Pritzker said in response to the decision in a statement released on Tuesday morning.”

Illinois State Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he was “pleased but not surprised” that the Supreme Court upheld the Safe-T Act. He said the court’s decision backs his opinion that the Illinois General Assembly has the authority to eliminate cashless bail and “replace it with a system in which people are detained pending trial only if they pose a threat to the public or are a flight risk.”

“Someone’s experience with the criminal justice system should not vary based on their income level,” Raoul said. “The SAFE-T Act was intended to address pervasive inequalities in the criminal justice system, in particular the fact that individuals who are awaiting criminal trials – who have not been convicted of a crime and are presumed innocent – may spend extended periods of time incarcerated because they cannot afford to pay cash bail.

“The law ensures that the decision about whether people are detained pending trial is not based on whether they can afford to pay for their release.”

Raoul said that with the court’s decision, cashless bail will go into effect soon. He said that other parts of the Safe-T Act that have not been challenged by prosecutors and sheriffs will remain in effect.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle said that the cash bail system "perpetuated systemic racial injustices and exacerbates the inequalities faced by communities of color" but that Tuesday's court decision allows for more equity among the state's Black and Brown communities and "dismantles" a system that disproportionately affects people of color.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the decision changes the state’s pre-detention system from a “wealth-based system” to one in which judges can order dangerous criminals to be held without access to their money.

“The Supreme Court has made our communities safer and our justice system fairer by upholding the SAFE-T Act,” Rinehart said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “Instead of domestic abusers, murderers, and sex offenders using their cash to obtain release, judges can finally hold dangerous individuals prior to trial.”

He said that he and other prosecutors will “still jail defendants prior to trial, and the defendants we do hold will be the dangerous weapon offenders, drug traffickers, child molesters, murderers, and domestic abusers who will no longer be able to use their own cash (or their accomplice’s cash) as an escape hatch from justice.”

Rinehart added: “Our communities are safer because of today’s ruling.”

Others, however, did not find pleasure in Tuesday's Supreme Court decision. Illinois State Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) said that the ruling makes communities in Illinois "less safe."

"The turnstile system of criminal justice that goes along with the elimination of cash bail will put dangerous offenders back on the streets within hours of their arrest," Wilcox said in a statement released on Tuesday. "Judges must have the flexibility to set bail as they see fit given the circumstances of each individual case.

“In a state with alarming crime statistics, eliminating cash bail without giving judges full discretion is the last thing we should do. Until Illinois decides once and for all to get tough on crime and hold offenders accountable, this state will continue to have a serious crime problem.”