March 28, 2024
Executive Summary
As the first state in the country to completely outlaw the use of cash bail, all eyes are on Illinois to see how implementation of the new law is working. Cook County is Illinois’ largest county, and it appears the county was well-prepared to implement the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) based on observations in the first six months of new pretrial procedures under the PFA. While the Pretrial Fairness Act made sweeping changes to the pretrial release process, many of these procedures were already followed in Cook County well before the law took effect due to a number of reforms made within the Cook County Circuit Court over the past decade, as well as preparations for new operational processes and legal requirements that began in 2021 through a variety of working groups of Cook County criminal justice stakeholders.
Because of the ramp-up to pretrial reform over the course of several years, as well as the resources available for staffing of court clerks, attorneys and pretrial officers, several requirements in the PFA were already in place in Cook County. For example, every criminal defendant in Cook County is represented by counsel at first appearance; the County already uses a risk assessment to provide judges with information about the potential risk of a defendant’s likeliness of being rearrested or not appearing in court; and Cook County has a pretrial services program that oversees defendants ordered to pretrial supervision. There are several notable differences from prior practice, however. For example, first appearance hearings last much longer than bond court hearings did under the old system, and the prosecution and defense appear better prepared to argue the evidence and present the judge with the facts of each case.
Initial data produced by the Cook County Circuit Court also provides answers to some basic questions about how the PFA is impacting the number of people who are arrested and appear in court. Contrary to predictions that the use of highly restrictive conditions such as electronic monitoring would increase once the law took effect, the number of people on the Sheriff’s electronic monitoring program and the Chief Judge’s two electronic monitoring programs have decreased since the PFA’s implementation. At the same time, pretrial supervision caseloads have increased by 22% based on the most recent data available through March 9. The number of people held in the Cook County Jail has decreased by 13% since the PFA took effect, at least part of which is attributable to the Pretrial Fairness Act implementation even after accounting for regular seasonal fluctuations, based on an analysis by Loyola University. Of the 2,732 cases in which the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office requested pretrial detention, judges granted detention in 59% of cases.
Overall, the law appears to be working as intended, with a goal of detaining those who pose a risk to public safety while avoiding unnecessary detention of those who are not a threat to public safety. However, questions remain about how the change in law is impacting recidivism and compliance with court appearances.