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.
It never made any sense to me.
It doesn’t make sense if you look at the US criminal justice system as a criminal justice system, but it makes a lot more sense if you look at the US criminal justice system as a feeder for for-profit prison systems, a way to demonize poverty, and a way to continue chattel slavery under the name “penal labor”
13th amendment
Really? Never made any sense??? Did you ever consider Thinking Like a Racist™️? 🌈🇺🇸
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.
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