But Illinois is about to overhaul the system that upended Ross’ life. Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act, which abolishes cash bail as a condition of pretrial release, will take effect Sept. 18, making Illinois the first state to end cash bail and a testing ground for whether — and how — it works on a large scale.
Judges can still keep people accused of serious crimes behind bars pretrial, but first would have to go through a more rigorous review of each case.
Critics say cash bail policies are especially unfair to Black people and other people of color. A 2022 federal civil rights report on cash bail systems found that courts tend to impose higher pretrial detention penalties on Black and Latino people, citing a study that showed Black men received bail amounts 35% higher than white men, and Latino men received bail amounts 19% higher than white men.
JB pritzker on a roll??
When Pritzker first got elected I was incredibly dubious. After all, we already had Trump as President and here is Pritzker, another hotel magnate, claiming he could do great things for Illinois. I have since been pretty impressed with everything he has done.
He’s kinda been crushing it. Definitely a pleasant surprise. I think putting 50 million of his own dollars towards campaigning for a tax system that would dramatically raise his own taxes was a pretty impressive demonstration that his approach is a bit different from Trump’s.
Also women’s healthcare, refugee support structures, LGBT inclusivity, legal recreational weed, union support, Election Day as a state holiday…the dude doesn’t suck.
He has been an excellent governor. All the conservatives in So. IL disagree, but when you ask them why, the literal only reason is “he raised the gas prices!!” They ignore the fact that Illinois has had a balanced budget for the last four years, that we are slowly climbing our way out of debt, that marijuana is legalized, cash bail has been ended, Southern Illinois has received a fuck load of infrastructure money, etc. They also ignore the fact that Southern Illinois is the prime reason WHY Illinois is so broke. Southern Illinois is where the majority of the people on snap, tanf, Medicaid, and other social programs are. They all conveniently ignore that though.
Conservatives sucking at the public teat while bemoaning the evils of “socialism”? Say it ain’t so!
