Message
As a constituent I write to urge that you oppose any future effort to weaken Illinois’ historic effort to end the use of money bond after it is fully implemented. A major policy change will take time to fully roll out and even longer to fully assess. It would not be helpful to allow campaigns based on disinformation and misinformation about the end of money bond to stop the historic change that Illinois is making with this law.
The new system – ushered in by the Pretrial Fairness Act – transforms how the criminal legal system works in Illinois. Now an accused person can only be jailed while awaiting trial because they are considered a danger to harm others or to flee from prosecution--not simply because they cannot afford bail. The Act also reduces the number of people who are held in jail before their trial, a practice that has been overused for years in Illinois, destabilizing families and entire communities. Most of all, the Pretrial Fairness Act restores the presumption of innocence to those charged with a crime, and compels the decision about someone’s detention to be made on an individualized basis – not simply based on the charge. Limiting pretrial incarceration allows people to maintain relationships, jobs, and stability in their lives while awaiting trial—and our communities will be safer as a result.
For all these reasons we need to let this law work. Thank you for your time and your work to advance justice in Illinois.
