Bond Court Reforms: A Second Look for Diversion Programs
By Michael Levy, Staff Attorney at Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice
At a press conference on July 13, 2012, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a major step toward reforming Cook County’s criminal justice system with the implementation of a coordinated diversion program in central bond court. Perhaps the most effective of the many reforms that Preckwinkle introduced is the “second look” or “Motion to Reconsider” court call. This court call is designed to decrease the jail population by allowing judges to reconsider bond amounts for individuals accused of non-violent offenses. If successful, this program will decrease the jail population and save the County money without compromising public safety.
Illinois law states that imposing a monetary bond should be a last resort; in practice, however, monetary bond is often imposed because judges lack information about defendants appearing in court. Monetary bonds can serve as de facto jail sentences for poor defendants who are disproportionately jailed while they await trial.
The “Motion to Reconsider” court call could begin to rectify this problem by allowing pretrial services more time to verify information about a defendant’s ties to the community, work history, employment status, and family situation. Pretrial services will be able to provide better information about a defendant’s background and ties to the community, allowing judges to make more informed bond decisions. Equipped with better information, judges should be able to reduce or eliminate bond for individuals who pose minimal risk to the community and are likely to appear at the next court date.
The benefits of releasing low-risk defendants while they await trial should not be underestimated. Defendants who are released from custody pending their next court date can continue working, stay in school, and keep their families intact. More informed bond court decisions could improve the lives of thousands of people in Cook County.
Providing verified information about defendants at this new court date also creates a new opportunity to refer defendants to diversion court programs. This second look court call provides an opportunity to employ the comprehensive diversion program outlined in Chicago Appleseed’s report, Strategies to Enhance and Coordinate Cook County Diversion Programs. These Strategies include:
- Forming a Coalition for Diversion, aimed at coordinating, enhancing, and expanding the use of diversion in Cook County.
- Establishing a Diversion Section within the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County for oversight of court-based alternatives to incarceration. The Diversion Section will serve to coordinate diversion programs, creating a system with dedicated diversion courtrooms and with multiple points where defendants can be diverted into alternative criminal justice programs or out of the criminal justice system entirely.
- Reinstating felony review of drug cases following arrest in order to identify cases for dismissal or diversion early in case processing. Without this program, over 12,000 people each year in Cook County are jailed for about a month until their case is dismissed,
- Enhancing pretrial services to conduct more background investigations, verify critical information, and identify candidates for the Diversion Section.
- Transferring authority for Bond Court from the Municipal Division to the Criminal Division to allow for a more coordinated criminal justice system.
- Increasing the use of safe, effective, and low-cost non-monetary conditions of pretrial release in Bond Court.
- Developing a centralized and independent data collection system to lay the groundwork for using evidence-based best practice approaches. Program evaluations and reforms must have accurate data to measure program performance and identify ways to improve performance.
Diverting qualified defendants into specialized programs at this second look court call will further prevent unnecessary incarceration, which can have a devastating impact on defendants and their families. Diversion is a documented way to cut costs and reduce recidivism. Cook County’s default to imposing monetary bonds and incarceration – especially for poor people accused of non-violent crimes – is an expensive policy that doesn’t benefit our communities. Around the country, jurisdictions with strong diversion courts have demonstrated that these programs can break the cycle of recidivism for repeat offenders.
The County should leverage the bond court reforms to implement more comprehensive diversion programs. Collaboration among stakeholders in the criminal justice system is essential to maintain momentum in the reform effort. The new reforms result from the work of the Justice Advisory Council of Cook County, chaired by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, and they are the product of six months of collaboration with criminal justice stakeholders. If these agencies can continue to work constructively, it will save the county money and deliver better results to the people.
Compared with the current cost of our criminal justice system, the start-up cost for this program is low. While justice is difficult to quantify economically, our judicial and County leaders are placing a premium on governing with efficiency, creating effective programs, and improving the administration of justice. This “second look” bond court program is hopefully the first step towards the comprehensive criminal justice reforms that Cook County has needed for decades.