Cash bail disproportionately impacts communities of color. Illinois is the first state to abolish it
Cash bail disproportionately impacts communities of color. Illinois is the first state to abolish it
Critics of cash bail as a condition of pretrial release say it is especially unfair to Black people and other people of color.
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.
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New Mexico mostly eliminated cash bail about seven years ago but there was still issues . I hope Illinois learned from our mistakes when they wrote their law .
What sort of issues did NM run into?
(And may I say, I love visiting and also am always surprised and amazed at how progressive and cool NM seems to be; I grew up in AZ... now in CO)