A judge from Illinois has ruled that the portion of the SAFE-T act that ends the state’s cash bail system is unconstitutional. if we talk about the SAFE-T, Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today attempt to find the different change parts of Illinois justice system with foreign rule like limiting how judges determine and allowing defendants under electronic monitoring to leave home for 48 hours before and the most discusses ending cash bail.
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In last week’s hearing, the ruling from a Kankakee County judge on Wednesday came behind the 65 Illinois counties challenged. Some rules take effect from January 1, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and signed into law last year. But if we talk about the present scenario of the Kankakee County State’s Attorney, the ruling from the judge ruled that bail reforms and pre-trial release are part of the law and will not take effect in those counties for upcoming months.
Other counties in the state that were not a part of the legal challenge to the law, including the most popular Cook County, which includes Chicago, will not affect by this ruling. According to the bill, the judge would have allowed judges in the whole state to decide whether defendants pose a risk to the public and could be free from jail without posting cash bail.
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Pritzker did disagree with this decison and called the ruling a “setback”; they also released a statement to criticise the bill.
“Today’s ruling is a setback for the principles we fought to protect through the passage of the SAFE-T Act,” Pritzker wrote. “The General Assembly and advocates worked to replace an antiquated criminal justice system with a system rooted in equity and fairness. We cannot and should not defend a system that fails to keep people safe by allowing those who are a threat to their community the ability to buy their way out of jail. I thank the Attorney General for his work on this case and look forward to the Illinois Supreme Court taking up the appeal as soon as possible.”
General Kwame Raoul also released a statement “Although the court’s decision is binding in the 64 cases that were consolidated in Kankakee County, it is important to note that it is not binding in any other case, including those involving criminal defendants in any of the state’s 102 counties,”
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