Bail and Pretrial

The system of bail in Cook County is about to undergo sweeping reforms. The experience described by a retired Washington state judge may explain why it has taken so long.

As Cook County joins other jurisdictions around the country in pushing to reform bail, organized opposition is growing from the bail bond industry and prosecutors.

Days before Cook County’s Chief Judge announced sweeping changes to the county’s cash bail system, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder issued a damning report that slammed the system as unconstitutional and unnecessarily costly.

Cook County sheriff Tom Dart has been dropped from lawsuit challenging the confinement pretrial of people charged with nonviolent crimes simply because they are too poor to make bail. Dart had contended he never should have been named in lawsuit; attorneys for the detainees says move focuses the case on the judges who decide on bail.

Maryland’s attorney general is out to reform the bail system there. But the bail bond industry has raised up in opposition, spreading its message and money to legislators.