Will County Gazette

In a rare stand of bi-partisan solidarity, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said he agrees with Democrat Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow in questioning Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s soon-to-be-effective cashless bail law.

“You’re right, James," Tracy said in his weekly memo. "Any ‘normal sane person’ would say a law immediately releasing violent criminals onto our streets to commit more acts of violence is 'absurd' and 'ridiculous.' More importantly, it doesn’t keep our communities safe. Governor Pritzker has the abnormal and insane governing philosophy that prioritizes the thoughts and feelings of violent criminals above law enforcement and public safety. Four more years of J.B. Pritzker is dangerous for Illinois.

Glasgow was one of several state's attorneys who have shared concerns over soon-to-be-effective state law — on Jan. 1, 2023 — that will eliminate cash bail statewide. 

“If someone murders a person, and that’s the only person that we’re aware of that they’re a danger to, that doesn’t fulfill the burden,” Glasgow told WGEM-TV. “I mean any normal sane person would say that’s insane, that’s absurd, that’s ridiculous it can’t be in the law but it’s in the law."

The law, aimed at keeping the poor in jail, has resulted in criminals being released much more easily for crimes they would have been jailed for in the past. Critics have pointed out a revolving door scenario where criminals are arrested and freed several times allowing them to commit a string of crimes without facing significant punishment. The elimination of cash bail and laws of prosecution has led to crime rates in Illinois progressing to the highest in decades. Cook County alone has seen 1,000 murders this year, the most since 1994. 

Lombard Police Chief Roy Newton said earlier this year that the environment in which criminals are allowed to continue to terrorize communities has led to an overall safety problem in the state. 

“Those offenders go out and continue to commit more crimes,” Newton told DuPage Policy Journal.

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, the Democrat leader of the Black Caucus, pushed to pass the Pretrial Fairness Act HB3653 which eliminated cash bail in the state, West Cook News reported. Lightford led fellow Democrats in January passing the bill in the Senate 32-23. It was later signed into law. She and her husband were carjacked in December 2021 as a carjacking epidemic has swept the area.

Illinois will become the only state where offenders are not held on a cash bail which in some cases means they have no reason to return to court and are free to remain on the streets.