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We are thrilled to share that the Illinois Supreme Court has officially handed down a decision upholding the constitutionality of the Pretrial Fairness Act! The community-led, multi-year effort to end wealth based pretrial jailing as punishment from our legal system has won yet another victory over the barriers erected against successful implementation. 

The Supreme Court ultimately agreed with advocates arguing that money bail is in fact, NOT enshrined in the state constitution, and that the legislature did not overstep the bounds of judicial discretion by prohibiting the use of it. Now, the law can continue on the path to full implementation, as the Supreme Court will discontinue the delay of the legislation as of September 18, 2023.. 

We have seen the injustice and racial disparities that persisted under the money bond system. Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Court, in partnership with the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, published a report last fall summarizing findings from court-watching of over 1,000 bond hearings in seven different counties across Illinois. In these counties, just 9% of residents were Black but 44% of people in bond court were Black. Court-watchers observed judges ordering money bonds blatantly above what people could afford to pay, at times without even inquiring about affordability, which flies in the face of the original intention for money bond to be affordable, so as to serve as a condition of release rather than a method for pretrial detention.. 

Now that this monetary condition has been removed from our system, hearings to determine pretrial conditions will be more robust and intentional than what the wealth-based system has historically required.

The result is that the more than 200,000 people who are impacted by our criminal legal system every year will have a better chance at truly receiving due process and more equitable justice. It means that families will not have to take food off of their tables and jeopardize the roofs over their heads to purchase their loved one’s freedom. It means more people will be able to remain connected to family, jobs, and sources of stability in their lives while their court case is processing, and have a greater chance at avoiding future contact with the legal system, making us all safer. 

This work is far from over, but today marks a momentous step forward in the movement to ensure that the presumption of innocence in this country no longer has a price tag. ChicagoAppleseed is proud and grateful to have contributed to this movement alongside our partners in the Coalition to End Money Bond and the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice. You can view the Network’s full statement here.