Injustices of money bail

In recent weeks, the Daily Herald has published multiple attacks on the Pretrial Fairness Act, legislation that ends Illinois' use of money bond in 2023. What these attacks ignore is the harm caused by money bond. As chair of the Criminal Justice Committee of the DuPage NAACP, I have seen the injustices of money bail.

An individual I know was charged with unauthorized possession of a weapon and the judge gave him a bail of over $800,000, even though he had no record. The unaffordable bail caused this young father to lose his job and the family lost their home. Now they're living with friends in a cramped apartment with no savings. A wife without her husband, three children without their father. Why?

Bail is supposed to ensure a return to court, but it has become a class-based system in service of mass incarceration. The principle of "innocent until proven guilty" is at the root of our legal system, what the bail system does is incarcerate the innocent based on their ability to pay. The accused lose their homes, businesses and relationships because they are not wealthy enough to afford bail.

The Pretrial Fairness Act attempts to address this issue by ending money bail. Judges will use the facts of a case to decide whether or not to jail someone pretrial. The legislation outlines several conditions and parameters to establish if a person should be jailed or released pretrial. Other jurisdictions that have reduced or eliminated pretrial jailing have shown that the overwhelming majority of people released pretrial return to court and don't get rearrested.

If we want to live in a more just, equitable and fair America, we must support the Pretrial Fairness Act and end money bail.

Vincent Gaddis

Aurora

Bannon's plan

Steve Bannon, one-time chief strategist for Donald Trump as president, has a plan for America. He says his goal is to "deconstruct the administrative state." This is a terrifying concept.

He must mean tossing the Constitution into the shredder, since that is the basis for our "administrative state." This document has served our nation for over 200 years. What does Bannon have in mind to put in its place? It's hard to imagine a nation without a national blueprint for government. What would replace the myriad laws that our nation's citizens depend on every day?

Oh. I know. Steve Bannon would install Donald Trump as president. Donald Trump's edicts would then replace our Constitution and that would be quicker than the slow path of legislation passing through Congress, then surviving challenges in the courts, before finally being enacted as the law of the land. What a cumbersome process.

How much better to have Donald Trump wake up in the morning and, on that day's whim, decide what laws will prevail. If he didn't like the result, he could change it the next day. How much more efficient than depending on the slow, ponderous machinations of a "democracy."

I think that process is called a "dictatorship." I always knew that Trump was a "despot wannabe" who admired Vladimir Putin and other autocrats in the world. Now he and his minions want to bring that to the United States. I hope voters will consider the grave consequences of another Donald Trump term and vote to preserve our democracy in November and beyond.

Those who blindly follow Donald Trump must open their eyes and see how a vote for him will destroy our nation, our heritage and our very way of life.

Karen Wagner

Rolling Meadows

What have we learned?

The recent Department of Education report about the huge decline in math and reading skills among students of color is disheartening, but not unexpected. COVID is the primary cause, concludes the study.

We need to learn from this to avoid repeating the biggest education errors during the next public health crisis.

What have we learned from this mess?

1) Remote learning is a myth for most, especially those with home surroundings not conducive to learning. Closing schools was a disaster, for which the children and society at large will now pay dearly. It is insidious racism to close the schools. Most Catholic and private schools managed to stay open and avoid large-scale COVID breakouts. It has been done successfully and can be again.

2) Teacher union leadership needs to return to professionalism. Doctors, nurses and other essential workers did not run away but chose to carry on. Some paid the ultimate price, but they also showed us what valor and principled leadership look like. Teacher union leadership needs to put students first (see No. 1).

3) Teachers need to undo the damage of remote learning, especially as it related to personal accountability. There are assignments to be submitted on time, deadlines to be kept and quality of work to be maintained. Otherwise, you have taught our children that you don't need to do your work, deadlines don't matter and any ol' work product is OK. Quality standards and deadlines are crucial to success in later life.

We need the highest standards in our schools. If COVID is to have a silver lining for education, it is what we can learn from it.

Maureen McAllister

Wayne

Help for middle class

The Sept. 5 Daily Herald contained two letters to the editor that claim the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) "benefited large corporations and wealthy Americans," was "heavily weighted toward the rich and corporations," and "was blatantly unfair to poor and middle-class Americans."

I am an enrolled agent who has worked in the tax field for 40 years. As a result, I am especially bothered by inaccuracies with regard to tax matters. Let me set the record straight.

Data published by the Internal Revenue Service clearly shows that the biggest beneficiaries of the TCJA were working and middle-income filers, not the top 1%. This data shows that filers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $15,000 to $50,000 received an average tax cut of 16% to 26% in 2018, (the first year the TCJA went into effect). Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received an income-tax cut of about 15% to 17% and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 received a tax break of around 11% to 13%.

By contrast, there was no income group with an AGI of at least $500,000 that received an average tax cut exceeding 9% and the average tax cut for brackets starting at $1 million was less than 6%. This data is consistent with what I observed preparing tax returns for my clients after the TCJA took effect.

In addition, this IRS data shows that in 2018 compared to 2017, the tax burden increased on every income bracket with filers earning $200,000 or more and every income bracket with a top limit lower than $200,000 paid a smaller%age of the total personal tax revenue collected. Clearly, the TCJA made our tax code more progressive.

Facts matter, whether you like them or not.

Stephen W. DeFilippis

Wayne

Working on ourselves

Thank you, Bonnie Jean Feldkamp, for your Sept. 6 article "Why relationships work best when we work on ourselves." This most enlightening piece fits in nicely with current therapeutic conceptualization and guidance termed Conflict-Intimacy. In brief, such theorizing states that the probability and eventual conflict and/or significant differences between partners in a marriage or extended relationship does not necessarily preclude a loving mutual resolution.

As pointed out and/or implied in this article, a deep understanding of one another's personal influences, core beliefs, values and different ways to greet the world along with knowing thyself promotes a more lasting and genuine connection between the partners.

Indeed, in a healthy relationship we grow together as we learn more and more about ourselves and our loved ones. Of course, each partner must be motivated to be with the other, to cherish each other's well-being and, as stated by Bonnie Jean, to be " willing to work on themselves."

The subject matter of this human interest article was most welcome.

Larry J. Powitz

Arlington Heights

Resident will be missed

John Bauer, a lifelong resident of Lake Zurich has passed away. He was also a life resident of Park Avenue.

John had a love for tractors and dogs. When I met him he had a dog named Isabelle. When Isabelle died, Junior found John and they became inseparable.

Perhaps you saw John in the Alpine Parades driving one of his tractors and holding Isabelle, then later holding Junior.

John also contributed his time and talent to the Lake County Fair association. He died the week of the fair. People who knew John imagined that he was there in spirit.

John Bauer will be missed by many, especially Junior.

Arlene Meyer

Lake Zurich