Illinois can be proud of pretrial reform

I was excited to see the Daily Herald outlining the success of the Pretrial Fairness Act on its one-year anniversary. As the author pointed out, bail reform has made our communities safer, allowing prosecutors to request detention in those cases where the person poses a safety risk. It is also dramatically more equitable, as it ensures that people are not jailed, while they are presumed innocent, simply because they can’t afford to pay a money bond. Since the law went into effect, both crime and pretrial jailing are down.

Unfortunately, Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain falsely claimed that pretrial reform has put “more people into custody.” Data collected by the Loyola Center for Criminal Justice, shows that jail populations have decreased by 14% in urban counties and 25% in rural counties. More people are at home in their communities, counties are saving money and jail staff are better able to do their jobs because they are not dealing with overcrowded facilities.

It was also disappointing to see DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin demanding more incarceration for people facing low-level charges even though every study shows that pretrial detention doesn’t make us safer and actually leads to more recidivism. This type of lazy analysis is what made our country the leading incarcerator in the world. Instead of demanding that more people be held in jail pretrial, we should invest in communities. We know that helping people with jobs, housing and mental health care prevents crime — especially the ones Berlin complains about.

I am proud of the work Illinois has done to make our state a leader in pretrial reform. We need to continue to improve our legal system, not return to old policies that failed to keep us safe.

Nathan Perrin

Lombard