Bail-reform has created a revolving-door justice system and returned serial offenders to the streets
As Chicago nears the one-year anniversary of the SAFE-T Act, proponents and their contracted researchers are in the midst of a concerted public relations campaign to convince the public that the new law is a rousing success. Meanwhile, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx doubles down on claims that the SAFE-T Act’s detractors were motivated entirely by racial animus. The fact remains that pre-trial release as it currently exists in Cook County is leading to more violent crime, particularly in the black community.
CWB Chicago recently reported that in Chicago, nearly 20 percent of felony arrests are committed by people who were released after an arrest and then rearrested for other violent crimes. CWB also observed that there are dramatic differences in the determination of detention, in many cases depending on the judge. Whether this represents a dramatic increase before the county aggressively embraced pre-trial release is not relevant to the thousands of victims of these crimes.
CWB noted that between 2020-'24, 387 people awaiting trial for felonies in Chicago and on pre-trial release were arrested for murder or attempted murder. Given that since 2017, CPD has brought charges in less than five percent of non-fatal shootings and 33 percent of murders that number could be as much as five times higher. Does that sound like pre-trial release is a success? This is an astonishing number of the most violent crimes being committed by individuals released while awaiting trial.
In 2024, the Cook County Sheriff’s Electronic Monitoring Program included 116 individuals charged with murder and attempted murder, 119 for sex crimes, 112 for aggravated battery, 443 for aggravated gun possession, and 118 for felony gun possession. With the SAFE-T Act’s two “free days off” from monitoring provision is taken into consideration, we must ask why we are not keeping dangerous criminals off the street. Far from creating safe streets, pre-trial release and its two-day exemption from home monitoring is a dystopian flaw that puts victims of crimes, witnesses, and community members in peril.
Cook County data shows a 16 percent increase over the average of the past three years. The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence reports a 110 percent spike in domestic violence related deaths last year alone. Meanwhile, many women murdered in domestic relations incidents had filed orders of protection that were never invoked due to the lack of attention to serve them by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, former Clerk of the Court Iris Martinez issued a report revealing defendants on pre-trial release failed to appear in court for hearings in approximately 67,000 of 90,000 cases from September 2023 — when cash bail was eliminated — until this month. The analysis issued by Martinez’s office included all active warrants in Cook County, including warrants filed before cash bail was abolished. While Chief Judge Timothy Evan’s office challenged those numbers claiming fewer than 28,000 cases had non-appearance, is that number itself acceptable by any objective.
The police overall arrest rate for all violent crimes is only 10 percent. The Cook County State's Attorney does not charge in about 30 percent of the cases. Even before the enactment of the SAFE-T Act, over 70 percent of those arrested and charged with a serious felony were released under the Cook County pre-trial release program launched in 2017. This means that on any given day it is likely that over 90 percent of those who have committed violent felonies are likely walking the streets of Chicago.
The degrading of police strength — a drop in CPD personnel of nearly 2,000 — has left CPD without sufficient officers to respond to half the “high priority” 911 calls. This condition is clearly a contributing factor for arrest rates reaching a historic low. However, that problem is aggravated by the refusal to charge many arrested and returning the vast majority of violent felons to the streets. The release of violent criminals certainly magnifies the problems police face in providing witnesses and victims the protections required to close cases.
Make no mistake who is most impacted by the degradation of the police and the failure to remove and keep violent offenders off the street. What is indisputable in the analysis of the crime statistics is the epidemic of “black on black” crime that is escalating and ignored by activists. A surge in black-on-black crime is terrorizing black residents and blighting inner city neighborhoods, driving what remains of the middle class out of the city. Since 2000 alone, an unprecedented 266,000 black residents have uprooted and left Chicago, most of whom are middle income families with children.
In Chicago, blacks comprise 32 percent of the city’s population but account for nearly 80 percent of murder and attempted murder victims. Over 90 percent of the assailants committing these crimes against black residents are black. Largely ignored by the anti-police activists is the impact violent crime is having on black women. A CBS News Chicago analysis of Chicago Police crime data found that black women accounted for 30 percent of all crime victims in 2022, with girls under 18 most often the victim. The CBS analysis also revealed 14 black girls are attacked and injured for every one white girl.
According to the Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola University in Chicago, the impact of the SAFE-T Act and the pre-trial release program that preceded it has been less dramatic. It is important to keep in mind that the Loyola Center has received multiple contracts in the millions of dollars from Cook County under Toni Preckwinkle and from many of Preckwinkle’s tangential justice partners, including the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Ms. Preckwinkle and the MacArthur Foundation are all strong proponents of the SAFE-T Act and the pre-trial release program. Meanwhile, as supporters of the SAFE-T Act trumpet flawed reports, there has been a concerted effort among Cook County officials to slow the release of data analyzing the SAFE-T Act in Cook County to the public.
Recall Loyola’s previous study of the 2017 Cook County Circuit Court “bail reform” financed by Chief Judge Timothy Evans. It declared bail reform a wild success because the percentage of those released who went out and committed crimes was unchanged. A University of Utah College of Law study, however, drew far different results. The University of Utah study looked at numbers of actual crimes showing a 45 percent increase in overall crime and a 33 percent increase in violent crime. Unfortunately, in 2024, Loyola's research may once again be misleading.
Recent data negates the fact that pre-trial release of the majority of defendants began in 2017 by order of Chief Judge Timothy Evans, to eliminate the ability to pay bond from decision making at felony bond court. Therefore, the principals of the SAFE-T Act began years ago and public safety was adversely impacted. The provisions in the SAFE-T Act that impact Cook County are nonsensical additions making us less safe and the system less transparent.
Meanwhile, criticism over Iris Martinez’s conclusions that nearly 75 percent of offenders on pre-trial release fail to appear in court is dismissed as bleats from a disgruntled loser. In March, Martinez lost a reelection bid to Mariyana Spyropoulos, who won the primary with the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party at the urging of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. The worst kept secret in Cook County was Martinez’s ongoing battle with both Preckwinkle and Chief Judge Timothy Evans over the lack of transparency in releasing this data.
It is clear that the Clerk’s Office under Martinez had been raising serious concerns for some time over the alarming number of failures-to-appear during court calls. On September 12th and 15th, 2024, CWB Chicago published stories highlighting their concern over the Cook County Pretrial Fairness Dashboard's accuracy in providing data on the SAFE-T Act’s effectiveness, citing the dashboards deficiencies, and in particular its omission of failure-to-appear notices. CWB underlined in their reporting they had not received a response to their inquiries from Cook County.
It is time to make the SAFE-T Act safe and ensure that the long overdue elimination of bail and pre-trial release in general has the necessary safeguards to ensure that dangerous and habitual criminals are not returned to the street. This can begin with amending the SAFE-T Act to ensure that those who attack, threaten, or intimidate victims, witnesses, police or other first responders are automatically detained and are subjected to harsh penalties.
Additionally, The Illinois General Assembly must find a way to provide prosecutors and courts across the state with the resources to advocate for pretrial detention of violent perpetrators and provide the financial support promised when the SAFE-T Act was passed to protect witnesses and victims. The elimination of bail cost the courts tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Dividends that had been used to cover the cost of court operations and for the protection of witnesses and victims, Cook County has not managed to replace proceeds that funded both because of the termination of bail.
The State of Illinois must also ensure that orders of protection entered into their Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS) are served and enforced by the county sheriff, and when needed, by local law enforcement. These orders mandate the abuser leave the home, and oblige the transfer of ownership of firearms, and abusers forced to relinquish their Firearm Owner’s Identification Cards. These are critical steps for protecting victims, their children, co-workers, and law enforcement, many who have been killed or injured in domestic incidents.
Finally, all public safety data needs to be readily accessible to the public. This includes any data analyzing the SAFE-T Act. The offices of pretrial services, the probation department, the juvenile justice system, and the court system, should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The reports and data from LEADS should be provided to the public and via FOIA. The lack of accurate information impacts everyone in the system, our public safety, and victims of crime.
As individuals like State’s Attorney Kim Foxx double down on her claim the SAFE-T Act’s opponents were motivated by race, the fact remains that victims of violent crime in Chicago are overwhelmingly minorities. Public safety is a fundamental human right and that right is being denied, especially in Chicago’s black community, where the concept of keeping violent and habitual offenders off our streets is being abandoned.
