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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Most people in the U.S. who are being held in jail have not been convicted of a crime. Instead, they are awaiting trial. For some, that wait can take weeks or even years if they can t afford to pay a cash bail to be released. That practice is controversial. While a few states have taken steps to change their cash bail system, Illinois will become the first to ditch it entirely. NPR s Cheryl Corley reports.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Critics of cash bail have a name for it. They call it the poor people s tax, leaving those who can t come up with the money for bail stuck in jail while they wait for their case to be heard. Fifty-seven-year-old Flonard Wrencher says he knows all about that.
Chicago Community Bond Fund
The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus succeeded earlier this month in ushering in legislation that would, among other things, end cash bail. If signed by Governor Pritzker, Illinois would be the first state to completely end the use of money bonds.
Lavette was arrested on an aggravated battery charge five years ago, following an altercation with her then-mother-in-law. Though she was never convicted, she was jailed for more than a year and spent four months on home confinement because she could not afford to pay the $25,000 bail. As the case wore on, bail was reduced to $9,500 and was paid by the Chicago woman’s family and the Chicago Community Bond Fund.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Most people in the U.S. who are being held in jail have not been convicted of a crime. Instead, they are awaiting trial. For some, that wait can take weeks or even years if they can t afford to pay a cash bail to be released. That practice is controversial. While a few states have taken steps to change their cash bail system, Illinois will become the first to ditch it entirely. NPR s Cheryl Corley reports.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Critics of cash bail have a name for it. They call it the poor people s tax, leaving those who can t come up with the money for bail stuck in jail while they wait for their case to be heard. Fifty-seven-year-old Flonard Wrencher says he knows all about that.
The reforms, which would go into effect in January 2023, will avoid the most dangerous pitfalls of quietly emerging “alternatives” to money bail: algorithms that predict peoples’ “risk” and detain those given higher scores, and surveillance devices that track people who maintain legal freedom before trial. These powerful tools are already used in a vast patchwork of jurisdictions across the country. Both are opaque and profitable and have gained prominence among bail reformers in places like California, where a failed effort to end money bail last autumn would have mandated prediction and increased surveillance.
In California and elsewhere, reformers have maintained that algorithmic prediction and “electronic monitoring” constitute safe, effective, and just substitutions for money bail. Advocates and experts say the tools are just as racist and classist as the money-bail system. Now, advocates see Illinois’ victory as reason for cautious optimism about the future of