bail reform

September 20, 2023

Cash Bail Officially Eliminated in Illinois

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Illinois has officially become the first state in the country to eliminate cash bail. Proponents of the measure say that it punishes the poor unfairly. The Pretrial Fairness Act prevents judges from setting bail but gives them broader discretion to deny release to those accused of violent crimes. Those opposed to the measure included prosecutors and police officers who see it as being “soft on crime.”

The measure is seen as leveling the playing field for Black, Brown, and poor communities that can’t afford to pay their way out of jail even when they are not a risk to the community. A 2022 civil rights report on cash bail showed that, on average, Black arrestees are required to pay 35% more than their white counterparts. Latinos on average pay 19% more. Hence, the system was intrinsically racist and remains so in states that have not eliminated cash bail. An estimated 60% of defendants ended up in jail because they could not afford to post bail.

Critics of the measure believe that this will allow dangerous people back on the streets. Law enforcement and other critics of the measure believe that now that cash bail has ended, defendants have no incentive to return to court. This will end up creating a situation where they are searching for defendants who are let out of jail.

August 30, 2023

Chicago Supreme Court Rules Ending Cash Bail is Constitutional

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that one of the provisions of the SAFE-T Act that would end cash bail is constitutional. The decision will allow Illinois to become the first state in the country to end cash bail. Instead of cash bail, judges will have the ultimate discretion on whether or not an individual is released from prison prior to their case.

Gov. Pritzker signed the SAFE-T Act into law the previous year. This one provision, whether or not to eliminate cash bail, was thwarted by the courts. The issue boils down to fairness. In many cases, an individual could be held in jail on charges that they could later defeat in court. However, if they could not afford to pay their bail, it acted as leverage for prosecutors to coerce a guilty plea out of them. In other words, they were held in jail until they pleaded guilty to the charges, and if they refused to plead guilty, they would remain in jail until a trial could be scheduled. This created an unfair situation for the poorest defendants who could not bond out of jail.

The provision is known as The Pre-trial Fairness Act. It was among the most controversial aspects of the bill. The cash bail provision was set to go into effect on January 1 of this year. Several prosecutors and sheriffs, however, filed cases in an attempt to halt the act. The provision was thus suspended until the cases could be heard by another court. The case made it all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court before the provision was passed in a 5-2 vote.

February 3, 2023

Tattoo Artist Accused of Sexual Assault While Out on Bond for Sexual Assault

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

This is part of the problem with the arguments against removing cash bail. The obvious thing is that cash bail does not prevent violent individuals from committing more violent crimes. It allows those who can afford to buy their way out of jail, do so. The idea that this makes you safer is silly.

Ending cash bail would give judges discretion over which cases an individual could be held for. In the case of sexual assault or other violent crimes, any form of bail would be denied.

In this case, a man was accused of sexually assaulting several female clients to whom he provided tattoos. He was charged with the crimes, bonded out of jail, and then committed several more sexual assaults. On Wednesday, he was denied bail.

January 6, 2023

SAFE-T Act Put on Hold Amid Legal Battles

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The SAFE-T Act was set to go into effect on January 1st of the new year. However, the no-cash bail provision of the bill was deemed unconstitutional by an Illinois judge. The Illinois Supreme Court put a halt on the legislation, which will likely force legislators to revisit some of the provisions of the bill.

While those on the right have derided the legislation as being soft on crime and making the streets less safe, the left believes that the criminal justice system unfairly favors those with money. Ending cash bail is one way to make the system fairer. However, it is not clear that either side is correct, and in all of the confusion, necessary reforms are falling by the wayside.

Had the Supreme Court not stepped in to block the legislation, cash bail would have survived in the counties that sued to block the measure. With some counties participating and others not, the court blocked the legislation until it could review it more carefully and determine if any of the provisions of the law violated the state constitution.

August 26, 2022

Ending Cash Bail: What Does it Mean?

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

While the media may have you believing that ending cash bail means allowing anyone charged with a crime to go free, the matter is not so simple or so haphazardly employed.

Imagine if you are charged with a crime you did not commit based on a witness misidentifying you. You don’t think it can happen to you? Well, it can. Now, if you have money, you just pay your way out of jail and wait for the charges to be dropped because the case is not strong enough. But what if you do not have the money to pay for the bail? You then have a choice. You can either plead guilty to the crime to get the matter settled and be on about your life, or you can fight the charges, stay in jail, and hope the system works the way it is supposed to. Since you have little faith in that happening for you, you end up taking a plea deal to get out of jail. In other words, the poor can be leveraged into plea deals simply to avoid being stuck in jail.

Is that fair? Of course, not. While some folks want to make the rules fairer, others are convinced that society would fall apart if we did not leverage the poor into false confessions based on the deprivation of their freedom.

January 12, 2022

Is “Woke” Bail Reform Putting Criminals Back on the Streets?

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

According to a recent opinion piece by the Daily Mail, “woke” bail reform is putting murderers back on the streets of Chicago. This is not strictly true. In 2020, when the jails and prisons were overcrowded with suspects awaiting charges, it became more routine to release individuals on ankle monitors. However, it is true that reforms in the way we do bail are impacting how it functions and who qualifies.

To be sure, Illinois is not woke when it comes to bail reform. Some states have moved to do away with the cash bail system, and we will get into their reasons why below. However, Illinois is not one of them so the idea that Chicago is putting murderers out on the streets at a greater rate than say, New York or Los Angeles is false. One of the reasons why Chicago takes it on the chin when it comes to these sorts of accusations is that we have a large Black population, a history of political corruption, and a reputation for organized crime. However, we are no more woke than, say, Birmingham, AL when it comes to our bail system.

COVID releases, overcrowding, and ankle monitors

April 29, 2020

Bail Charities Under Fire as Released Commit New Crimes

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

There has been a great deal of discussion recently over the role bail plays in American society. Political pundits who are rallying against bail reform cite instances of re-offense while the suspect is awaiting charges for another crime. Political pundits in favor of bail reform argue that the system is patently unfair and individuals charged with nonviolent crimes rot in jail for a year while the wheels of justice slowly turn.

Now, one charity is being scrutinized by the media after providing bail to inmates who then turned around and offended again.

Habitual Criminal Activity

April 1, 2020

Curtis Lovelace v. The People of Illinois

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Curtis Lovelace was charged with the murder of his wife, Cory Lovelace, in Illinois. After a mistrial the first time around, a jury decided that the prosecution had not met their burden of proof and acquitted Lovelace of the crime. Nonetheless, Lovelace was sent a bill for over $40,000 for posting bond and various expenses related to his in-home incarceration. We also spent some time in a county jail before he was able to get friends to lend him the money.

Lovelace is now jobless, family-less, and his life is destroyed. After the acquittal, Lovelace petitioned the court to return the entire $350,000 bond. But instead, they sent him an “administrative fee” for $35,000 and charged him another $5,000 for the 277 days he wore an electronic monitor.

Recently, the Supreme Court of Illinois declined to hear his case.

January 1, 2020

What is Rule 26 and How Could it Affect You?

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Rule 26 went into effect on January 1st, but some counties are implementing a 30-day “trial period” to comply with the state’s new rule. Other counties have already implemented the new rule, and have seen benefits. The rule, which passed in the last legislative session, will impact how bail and pretrial release works in the State of Illinois. It is the result of two separate initiatives on the best practices for criminal justice.

The pilot program began as early as 2016 with 11 counties volunteering to adopt the measures. The initiative, which had its fair share of detractors, changes the way the bail system works and does away with money bail. Instead, the judge conducts a pretrial risk assessment when deciding if or when a suspect will be released and what kind of supervision they require. The ultimate goal of Rule 26 is to decrease jail populations.

In other words, instead of paying your way out of a jail cell, judges, in concert with other law enforcement officials, will be able to conduct risk assessments on suspects to determine whether or not they should be released on their own recognizance. However, ultimately, it is the judge’s decision alone that will impact if a suspect is released and the conditions of that release.

June 20, 2018

Chicago Bail Law Reforms

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The cash bail system has drawn flak from all quarters for many decades. The system’s insensitive handling of people with criminal charges needs proper revision. The instance of Lavette Mayes is a telling example. Mayes could not pay the huge bail amount that the judge charged her with. Only with the help of her defense attorney and a local bail funding organization, Mayes managed to free herself from custody.

Benefits of Chicago Bail Law Reforms

The Illinois bail reform passed in 2017 is a big boon to residents of the state. According to the reform bill, cash for bail will not be necessary anymore. Most of the inmates languishing in the state prisons are there because they cannot pay bail. With the reform, you need not spend time in jail for nonviolent or misdemeanor charges, or some low-grade felonies.