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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – Friday marks three years since Illinois became the first state in the country to completely end the use of cash bail. Democrats are celebrating this milestone for the Pretrial Fairness Act while Republicans are demanding change.
Sponsors and advocates say pretrial jailing has decreased since 2023 levels and judges are spending more time reviewing each person’s case. Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago) also told WAND News millions of dollars previously taken as bond payments are now staying in the state’s most marginalized communities.
“They know that a loved one is able to come home and they don’t have to worry about whether they can pay for their kid’s food or they’re going to be able to pay for rent,” Peters said. “Now those things are not going to be in conflict with each other because they don’t have to spend unnecessary money to be able to get someone out from pretrial incarceration.”
However, local Republicans said the pretrial fairness system needs significant reforms. Rep. Mike Coffey (R-Springfield) introduced a plan earlier this year to make all felonies detainable and give judges more discretion during pretrial hearings.
His plan would also let courts deny pretrial release to those who prosecutors say pose a threat to public safety or are likely to miss court.
“We had a situation in Springfield where somebody robbed storage units. They went to jail and were let out the same day, re-robbed the same storage units that they robbed earlier in the morning,” Coffey said. “I mean, this stuff has got to stop. When you have repeat offenders, people like that have to be detained and put in jail.”
Sangamon County Sheriff Paula Crouch and State’s Attorney John Milhiser support Coffey’s plan, but Peters said it is a nonstarter. Peters stressed the worst thing a state’s attorney can do is say everybody is a threat.
“We want the state’s attorney and the judge to be very clear and very concise in who they’re targeting when it comes to detaining somebody because the community safety is on the line,” Peters said.
The Democrat said Republicans are only attacking the law because they have nothing else to run on in 2026. Yet, Coffey said voters are concerned about public safety too.
“If you’ve got pedophiles out there, and you can’t detain them, and you know that they’re going to harm kids, I think it’s very harmful,” Coffey said. “You just don’t know who it’s going to harm. That’s the case. It’s like a ticking time bomb. We know these people are going to repeat because history has shown us that they will.”
The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice said opponents continue to jump on any tragedy to attack the law, and the organization said critics often do so by lying about what the law does and does not do. Advocates said comprehensive statewide data could help community members and stakeholders better understand implementation issues that need to be addressed and help put misinformation to rest.