News
Can Springfield fix Cook County’s broken bail system?
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The effort to change Cook County’s bail system, stymied for years, suddenly has life in Springfield. But can Illinois legislators accomplish statewide reform?
News
Bail bondsmen’s political muscle working overtime against reform efforts
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Across the country, efforts to reform bail have run headlong into opposition from the bail bond industry. The bondsmen, it turns out, have considerable political muscle.
News
Jail Roulette: Cook County’s arbitrary bond court system
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A team of 14 Injustice Watch journalists documented 1,398 bond court cases in six different Cook County courthouses this summer, as part of the continuing Injustice Watch investigation into inequalities at different stages of the justice system. Here is their report.
News
Home is no castle for some Cook County defendants; it’s jail
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More than 2,000 people each day are out of Cook County Jail but awaiting trial under an “electronic ball and chain”: They can’t work, go to school, pick up their children, or even buy groceries without a judicial “okay.”
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Cook County Board members hear calls to end cash bail
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Bail reform is more than just “the right thing to do,” officials and criminal justice experts argued at a public hearing Thursday—it’s also safe and affordable.
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Reforming Cook County bail system may have side benefit: lower cost
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Cook County court officials already are seeking more money to provide the services needed to keep fewer people awaiting trial behind bars. But good news from other cities: It ends up costing less, not more, to release more people before trial.
News
Cook County Sheriff proposes an end to cash bail
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Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced Monday that he is embracing an end to cash bail. “We’ve got to blow the system up and replace it with a system that is not dependent on wealth,” said Cara Smith, Dart’s chief policy advisor.
News
Study: If you can’t make bail in Cook County, you’re more likely convicted
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Suspects who can’t make bail in Cook County are more likely to end up convicted than those who are able to post bail. That disparity is one more argument being used to challenge the constitutionality of keeping people locked up before conviction just because they can’t afford bail.
News
Cook County is “leader” in risk-based bond assessment, chief judge says
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Amid growing criticism of the bail system, Chief Judge Timothy Evans this week called Cook County a national leader in using risk-assessment data to set bond.
News
Not locked up, but still coming to court
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Does releasing more people before trial—without requiring bail money—make sense? Here’s what the numbers show.