But Illinois is about to overhaul the system that upended Ross’ life. Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act, which abolishes cash bail as a condition of pretrial release, will take effect Sept. 18, making Illinois the first state to end cash bail and a testing ground for whether — and how — it works on a large scale.
Judges can still keep people accused of serious crimes behind bars pretrial, but first would have to go through a more rigorous review of each case.
Critics say cash bail policies are especially unfair to Black people and other people of color. A 2022 federal civil rights report on cash bail systems found that courts tend to impose higher pretrial detention penalties on Black and Latino people, citing a study that showed Black men received bail amounts 35% higher than white men, and Latino men received bail amounts 19% higher than white men.
Same. Under the bail system, the judge can essentially say that the “accused” is a threat to society or a flight risk… but they have money so I’m gonna let them run free until trial. If they’re poor though, fuck 'em.
Yeah they haven’t been convicted but remain a prisoner…unless they pay an arbitrary amount of money to get out of jail? There’s gotta be a better way. People lose their jobs and houses waiting for their appearance in court. Most probably were arrested for good reason, but still.
Supposedly the amount of bail is chosen based on the resources of the accused, to deter them from running. It probably doesn’t actually work out that way though