Meet the Violent Criminals Roaming the Illinois Streets Thanks to State's Cash Bail Ban
Dem governor Pritzker said abolition of cash bail would bring a 'more equitable and just Illinois'
Jessica Costescu
October 2, 2023
Suspects accused of violent felonies, some with extensive criminal records, are now roaming the streets of Illinois as they await trial thanks to a liberal law that ended cash bail in the state, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
After that law went into effect mid-September, an array of violent arrestees who may have otherwise remained behind bars were released from custody without bail. One Illinois man, whose rap sheet includes 15 arrests, was released after he allegedly bit a police officer and squeezed the officer's testicles. Another man, who was already on parole for armed robbery, avoided pretrial detention after allegedly breaking into a high-end boutique. A third woman was released from custody after she appeared to attack four Chicago police officers—the woman's release came on the first day the state's bail reform law went into effect.
The releases provide a window into the impact of the state's SAFE-T Act, which passed in 2021 but faced an array of legal challenges before it went into effect earlier this month. While many liberal cities have enacted policies to scale back cash bail, Illinois is the first state to abolish it. Out of 102 county prosecutors, 100 opposed the law. Many of those prosecutors blasted the state's liberal legislature for imposing measures on localities where law enforcement officials oppose an end to cash bail.
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/meet-the-violent-criminals-roaming-the-illinois-streets-thanks-to-states-cash-bail-ban/
