Public defense reform advances as Illinois moves to hire statewide public defender

CHICAGO — Nearly three years ago, Illinois became the first state in the nation to fully abolish its cash bail system, an effort pushed by criminal justice reform advocates who argued that the ability for a person to post bond after an arrest does not equate with the danger he or she poses to the community.

The overhaul, one part of the SAFE-T Act lawmakers approved in early 2021, mandated an entirely new — and in many cases, much faster — process for arrestees to get in front of a judge for an initial hearing in order to quickly evaluate who should stay in jail and who should be released to wait for a next court date.

As a result, proponents argued, defendants charged with low-level crimes would no longer face life-altering consequences like losing their jobs, home or parental rights just because they were unable to afford bail, while those arrested for violent crimes like domestic battery wouldn’t be able to buy their way out of jail.

But the September 2023 implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act revealed glaring disparities in resources afforded to public defenders across the state versus their prosecutorial counterparts in Illinois’ 102 county state’s attorney offices.

Read more: Disparately resourced public defenders prepare for the end of cash bail in Illinois

At the time, Illinois was one of only seven states at the time without any oversight mechanism for monitoring how effectively counties’ court systems help defendants exercise their right to counsel for trial via the public defender’s office, according to a 2021 study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court. Additionally, Illinois left funding for public defenders entirely up to counties instead of incorporating costs into the state budget.

The Pretrial Fairness Act requires more in-depth evidence and arguments during first appearance hearings than under the old bond system, where first appearance hearings often lasted just a few minutes while a judge set bail. Now detention hearings are required to take place within 72 hours of an arrest, meaning public defender services are often needed right away to review early evidence in cases.

But now after a two-year legislative process to create the Office of Statewide Public Defender, the Illinois Supreme Court is finally moving toward hiring for the position.

Read more: Lawmakers moving forward on public defender reform | Baby food safety, press freedom, public defender measures will head to governor

In an official job posting this week, the qualifications and duties of the statewide public defender are laid out, including the mandate to standardize county public defender practices, workloads and salary scales. Recruitment and retention for these jobs has been a difficult barrier, especially as rural areas have long faced attorney shortages more broadly.

The initial statewide public defender will serve a two-year term and receive a salary of $218,400 — equal to that of Attorney General Kwame Raoul, an elected constitutional officer. The parity is required by the 2025 law creating the office, as is a raise for public defender employees across the state to compete with prosecutors employed by the state’s attorney’s office in the same county.

The application deadline is Oct. 9, and an appointed commission finalized earlier this year will review candidates and make a final decision in order for the statewide public defender to begin the job Jan. 1.

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.