The number of people incarcerated at Cook County Jail has drastically declined since the abolition of cash bail in Illinois, leading to a near-all-time low in the jail population. While this reform has been successful in the Chicago area, the state still faces challenges when it comes to transparency and accountability regarding pretrial detention.
The Pretrial Fairness Act, which went into effect in September, set a deadline for the state’s pretrial services office to collect and publish data from all 102 counties in Illinois. The data would provide crucial insights into who is being detained before trial, the reasons for their detention, and the outcomes of their cases. However, the state has yet to launch the required data dashboards, and a report released at the July 2022 deadline stated that the data collection would be delayed by at least a year.
Advocates argue that this information is essential for evaluating the impact of bond reform and ensuring the law’s long-term success. Without access to comprehensive data, it becomes challenging to assess who is being affected by the changes and whether the reform is achieving its goals of racial and economic justice.
While the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services has been tracking pretrial detention petitions in 71 counties since September, the task of aggregating and analyzing data from all 102 counties is monumental. Different case management technologies, including paper-based records, pose significant challenges to streamlining the data into a single system.
Despite these setbacks, the pretrial services office released a limited batch of data in early December. However, the report did not include crucial metrics required by law, such as information on criminal charges, reoffense rates, and demographic information.
The absence of complete and standardized data hampers the efforts of defense attorneys in preparing effective defenses and understanding how different counties apply the law. It also prevents prosecutors from fully assessing case outcomes and identifying areas where pretrial detention may be unnecessary.
The need for accurate data is particularly crucial in counties that initially resisted bond reform. It allows watchdogs to ensure that judges and prosecutors are only detaining individuals when they pose a genuine threat to public safety.
In the absence of comprehensive state-mandated data, several legal groups and advocates have relied on court-watching programs to collect anecdotal information. However, this data is limited without a larger statewide system in place.
Ultimately, access to accurate and comprehensive data is crucial for countering misinformation and evaluating the impact of bond reform. The lack of data undermines the integrity of the court system and prevents advocates from responding effectively to false claims about the previous cash bail system.
As the state continues its efforts to implement the required data dashboards, it is crucial to prioritize transparency, accountability, and the long-term success of bond reform. By providing complete and standardized data, Illinois can ensure that judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys have the necessary tools to apply the law fairly and advance justice for all.
