State’s attorney says end of cash bail an ‘abject failure’ in his Illinois county

A full year into the state’s end of cash bail, a suburban county state’s attorney says the law has been “an abject failure” for his county.

Illinois ended cash bail statewide in September 2023 after litigation against the law was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court. The Pretrial Fairness Act is part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity Today, or SAFE-T, Act.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said the data in his county doesn’t show what proponents promised.

“There was a 30% increase in crime by those on pretrial release compared to those on cash bail,” Kenneally told The Center Square.

Contrary to proponents of the Pretrial Fairness Act who said the law would decrease jail populations, Kenneally said he found the opposite in his county.

“On the eve of the SAFT-T Act, on Sept. 17, 2023, there were 204 people in the McHenry County Jail and on Sept. 15 of 2024, which is exactly one year counting for the leap year, there were 216 people in the McHenry County Jail,” Kenneally said.

The findings didn’t stop there. Kenneally said there was a 280% increase in the number of criminal defendants who didn’t appear for their hearings. But one area he highlighted with the end of cash bail is the diminished victims compensation fund.

“If people are no longer required to put down any deposit of money, what that means is that even if you say, ‘hey, you have to pay a victim this amount in restitution’ … a very little amount of that money is being paid,” he said.

The Illinois Network for Pretrial Fairness said Kenneally used percentages to inflate data.

“The actual difference between the number of people who were accused of new offenses under pretrial release vs. people released after paying money bond is 17,” the group said. ”It is only because the total number of people accused of new offenses is small that the percentage increase seems large.”

They say Kenneally’s analysis of the jail population “suffers from the same defect, because the rise is minimal – just 12 people, representing an increase of 5.5%”

“He further claims there has been a 280% increase in Failures to Appear, which sounds alarming – if it were true,” the group said. “In reality, Failure to Appear Warrants have actually decreased by 42% in McHenry County, dropping from 1,055 to 616.”

They say the law allows warrants to be issued when a judge decides it is necessary to bring someone into court because they will not return voluntarily.

They point to information from the Center for Criminal Justice they say shows Illinois’ system “of basing pretrial release decisions on public safety rather than wealth is working.”

In a news release, Kenneally said the problem with the law ending cash bail is it “denies county judges, elected by the communities affected by the alleged crimes, the discretion to detain defendants charged with most crimes, no matter how high-risk.”

“One need not be a professor of criminology to understand that mandating judges in all circumstances to release high-risk defendants pretrial is a misguided and unreasonable policy,” Kenneally said. “A policy that proceeded from the ideology of a privileged group of advocates who dictate criminal justice legislation in Illinois overcoming common sense.”

The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice countered that.

“People alleged to pose a danger to others or a risk of flight can be detained after robust, individualized hearings,” the group said. “Judges preside over those hearings and get to decide who is detained pretrial and who is released.”