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.

  • Riyria@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    He has been an excellent governor. All the conservatives in So. IL disagree, but when you ask them why, the literal only reason is “he raised the gas prices!!” They ignore the fact that Illinois has had a balanced budget for the last four years, that we are slowly climbing our way out of debt, that marijuana is legalized, cash bail has been ended, Southern Illinois has received a fuck load of infrastructure money, etc. They also ignore the fact that Southern Illinois is the prime reason WHY Illinois is so broke. Southern Illinois is where the majority of the people on snap, tanf, Medicaid, and other social programs are. They all conveniently ignore that though.

    • undercrust@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Conservatives sucking at the public teat while bemoaning the evils of “socialism”? Say it ain’t so!

      • Riyria@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        They’re so deluded, they all see themselves as disenfranchised millionaire. So when the graduated income tax was proposed, they freaked the fuck out, when anything is raised that impacts the wealthy, they freak the fuck out. I was an attorney that dealt with some of the poorest people in Illinois, and the conservatives, despite living in a 40 year old trailer and not owning a vehicle because they couldn’t afford one STILL bitched about this stuff like it effected them in anyway, while having the audacity to ask me if I could help them commit Medicaid fraud in case they needed the state to pay for nursing home costs in the future.