Metro East Sun

With the Illinois SAFE-T Act set to go into effect at the beginning of next year, critics ranging from law enforcement officials to Republicans are questioning whether the bill will truly provide any safety.

The SAFE-T Act authorizes vast reforms affecting many sectors of the criminal justice system—including corrections, pre-arrest diversion, pretrial, policing and sentencing; a report from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority said.

The most contentious portion of the SAFE-T Act is that it will eliminate cash bail in the state. The bill noted that it will be “presumed that a defendant is entitled to release on personal recognizance” and may be detained thereafter if they violate certain conditions listed in 725 ILCS 5/110-2.

Jen Korte, Republican candidate for state representative of District 112, recently provided her thoughts on the SAFE-T Act.

“Illinois Democrats pushed through the SAFE-T Act,” she said in a Facebook post. “This radical legislation pushes to defund the police and make our communities less safe. The SAFE-T Act is set to abolish cash bail - an important tool used by law enforcement to keep dangerous criminals off the streets before a trial can be held. The SAFE-T Act's provisions will allow rapists, domestic abusers, murderers and other violent criminals off easy in the name of social justice. I join residents of the 112th District to demand that Katie Stuart call for the repeal of the SAFE-T Act.”

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow held a speech on July 4 in which he stated that when the act goes into effect, 640 perpetrators in the Will County jail will be eligible for release. Of those eligible, 60 have a murder charge and a multitude of others have violent-offense charges.

“If that bill [the SAFE-T Act] goes into effect…police officers’ hands will be tied…,” Glasgow said. “What you see in Chicago, we’ll have here (Naperville). I won’t be able to hold anybody in jail longer than 90 days if they demand trial, and after at the 90th day, they get out, no matter what crime they committed, and then, if they don’t show up for court, I can’t get a warrant…they’re not going to come back to court…It’s going to be literally the end of days.”

State Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove) addressed some of the issues with having to find “continued detention” necessary following an initial detention hearing.

“The prosecutor has to identify, and the judge has to find that you pose a risk to a particular individual to continue to detain that person,” Curran said, as opposed to only having to prove a risk to the general public.

Gov. JB Pritzker has defended HB3653, the SAFE-T Act; The Center Square recently reported. One of the reasons he gave for his stance on the issue was that the bill would protect criminals who do not have the financial resources that "drug-dealers" have and keep them from having to sit in jail for months.