Metro East Sun

Erica Conway Harriss, Republican Candidate for Illinois State Senate, District 56, is calling for the immediate repeal of the controversial SAFE-T Act.

"The SAFE-T Act was passed in the middle of the night, on a party line vote, with no real input from the people it harms most: law enforcement officers and the residents of our state," Harris told the Metro East Sun. "It is not only a terrible policy that has made our state less safe, but also evidence of a broken and corrupt process in Springfield that serves the needs of elites and ignores the will of  the people. The law has made recruiting new officers more difficult, will eliminate cash bail and send violent criminals back out onto the streets. The job of being a police officer is already difficult and dangerous, and this makes their task even harder. In the State Senate, I will support the immediate repeal of the SAFE-T Act and will consult with police officers in my district when deciding on legislation that affects their lives and the safety of our streets.”

According to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) website, the SAFE-T Act enacts extensive reform impacting many areas of the criminal justice system, including pre-arrest diversion, policing, pretrial, sentencing and corrections.    

The most contested aspect of the SAFE-T Act is that it will eliminate cash bail in the state of Illinois. The bill noted 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.     

During a speech on July 4 in Naperville, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said there are 640 perpetrators in Will County Jail. On Jan. 1,  all bonds will be extinguished, and they will be eligible for release. Sixty of those 640 are charged with murder, and many others are violent offenders.

“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.”

Illinois Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove) addressed some of the issues with having  to find “continued detention” necessary following the 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, as opposed to only having to prove a risk to the general public," he said, according to Fox 32 News.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) has defended the SAFE-T Act. One of the  reasons he provided for his stance on the issue is that the bill would protect criminals without the financial resources that  "drug dealers" often have and keep them from having to sit in jail for days, The Center Square reported.