CHICAGO — The Illinois criminal justice system is set for a major makeover beginning Sunday, replacing a cash-bail structure with one that requires judges to more carefully weigh who among the accused should be held in custody before trial without using money as a factor.
But for how long the new method will remain in place is unclear, growing murky after a Kankakee County judge this week ruled the elimination of cash bail and other pretrial reforms passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker were unconstitutional.
Judge Thomas Cunnington sided with state’s attorneys from more than 60 counties — mostly downstate — who oppose the reforms in the SAFE-T Act and made several allegations in a lawsuit, including that the state legislature violated the separation-of-powers clause in the Illinois Constitution by interfering with the judiciary’s ability to set bail.
