Trump threatens Illinois’ federal funding for eliminating cash bail

DECATUR – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at pushing Illinois to reverse its law that eliminated cash bail.

The order calls on the U.S. attorney general to come up with a list of states and other jurisdictions that “substantially” eliminated cash bail and requires the Office of Management and Budget to identify ways to withhold federal funding for states without a cash bail system.

Cash bail ended in Illinois in September 2023 when the Pretrial Fairness Act took effect. Illinois was the first state to entirely eliminate cash bail, but other states have limited its use.

Illinois’ new system puts the impetus on judges to determine whether an accused individual is dangerous. It allows them to detain the accused individual if a prosecutor requests it, or to set release conditions, rather than simply setting a dollar amount that a person could pay to be released.  It’s not clear what federal funding, if any, would be in jeopardy because of the executive order.

“It’s clear that the president really hasn’t read any of the background or actually what’s happened as a result of the law being put in place,” Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters in Decatur on Tuesday.

Trump signed a separate executive order Monday reinstating cash bail in Washington, D.C. He claimed places without cash bail see more crime, people released from jail don’t return to court and people charged with murder are not detained.

“They have a great cashless bail,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. “You don’t even have to go to court sometimes. Illinois – I love that state, it’s a great state, but it’s run so badly by Pritzker.”

Illinois law

Illinois’ law does not automatically allow people charged with felonies to remain out of jail before their trial. Local prosecutors decide whether to petition a judge to keep a person detained as they await trial, and the law directs the justice system to cite and release most low-level, nonviolent offenders.

A hearing is then held with a judge who reviews that request and determines if a person should be jailed or can remain free with certain conditions, such as electronic monitoring. If a judge agrees the person is dangerous or is at risk of fleeing, they can order them jailed until trial.

The new policy shifted Illinois away from a cash-based system, which advocates have argued made wealth a greater determinant of pre-trial release than public safety.

By removing cash from the equation, advocates say, it makes it less likely that high-level dangerous offenders go free while awaiting trial.

The law was also backed by domestic violence advocacy organizations because it gives judges greater authority to detain a person pretrial in cases of domestic violence than the cash bail system did.

The federal court system also often uses a no-cash detention system where judges set conditions for a person’s release.

In a statement, the authors of the Pretrial Fairness Act — Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago; Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago; and Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago — said “the president’s attack on the Pretrial Fairness Act and pretrial reforms nationwide is not about safety. He is a deeply unpopular, failing president who is trying to make people afraid so that he can hold onto power by brute force.”

What the data says

It’s been nearly two years since cash bail was abolished in Illinois, but early data released last year by Loyola University researchers found it has not led to an increase in crime.

Read more: A year after end of cash bail, early research shows impact less than many hoped or feared

Jail populations did not decline substantially in the first year, but the rate of people who did not appear for court hearings has also not changed.

The latest data in Cook County through mid-August shows 57% of people arrested have been held for a detention hearing, including 70% of all felony charges. Of the people who had a detention hearing, judges ruled 61% should remain behind bars pretrial, including 69% of felony cases.

The data also shows 87% of people released pretrial showed up to their scheduled court dates. Eighty-four percent of people released pretrial with conditions also did not commit new crimes.

“Every data point shows that Illinois is better and safer since we implemented the law,” the lawmakers said. “It is unsurprising that a president who doesn’t understand truth but deeply believes in a two-tiered system of justice is lying for his own gain.”

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, released a statement Monday calling for the SAFE-T Act, the broader law that includes the Pretrial Fairness Act, to be repealed.

Pritzker said he and Attorney General Kwame Raoul have not discussed filing a lawsuit to challenge the executive order, but Raoul has filed several this year challenging Trump administration policies that take federal funding away from Illinois.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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