Monitoring Cook County's Central Bond Court
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Monitoring Cook County’s Central Bond Court A Community Courtwatching Initiative August - October, 2017 The Coalition to End Money Bond February 27, 2018 1 Contents: Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................4 The Coalition to End Money Bond ................................................................................................4 The Community Courtwatching Initiative ......................................................................................5 Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................6 Money bond results in the unfair incarceration of legally innocent people. .................................6 Recent bail reforms in Cook County were long overdue and need evaluation. ..........................7 Recommendations for Fairer Outcomes ......................................................................................7 I. What's at Stake in Bail Reform? ...............................................................................................8 Pretrial incarceration harms accused people and their families. .................................................8 Money bail is racially discriminatory. ............................................................................................9 Money bail and pretrial incarceration are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars that could be better spent investing in communities. ............................................................................. 10 Wealth-based jailing is unconstitutional. ................................................................................... 11 II. How Bond Court Works in Cook County .............................................................................. 13 Fundamentals of Bail Law in Illinois .......................................................................................... 13 The Bond Court Process in Cook County ................................................................................. 15 III. Bail Reform Efforts in Cook County ...................................................................................... 18 Use of a Pretrial Risk Assessment Tool and Pretrial "Services"............................................... 18 Policy Changes in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office .................................................. 20 Changes to State Law: The Bail Reform Act of 2017 ............................................................... 21 Litigation Challenging Wealth-Based Pretrial Incarceration ...................................................... 21 Adoption of a Local Court Rule on Affordable Bail: General Order No. 18.8A ......................... 22 IV. Findings: Assessment of Reforms ........................................................................................ 24 The People in Bond Court ......................................................................................................... 24 Race and Gender .............................................................................................................. 26 Charges ............................................................................................................................. 27 Bail Decisions: What kind of bonds did people receive? .......................................................... 28 Reform Measures Assessed in This Section ................................................................... 28 Before ................................................................................................................................ 28 After ................................................................................................................................... 28 Impact and Analysis .......................................................................................................... 29 Ability to Pay Determinations: Were money bonds set in amounts people could pay? ........... 31 Reform Measures Assessed in This Section ................................................................... 31 Before ................................................................................................................................ 31 After ................................................................................................................................... 32 Impact and Analysis .......................................................................................................... 33 State's Attorneys Recommending I-Bonds: What was the impact? ......................................... 34 Reform Measures Assessed in This Section ................................................................... 34 Before ................................................................................................................................ 34 After ................................................................................................................................... 34 Impact and Analysis .......................................................................................................... 34 2 Variation across Judges: How much does it matter? ................................................................ 35 Reform Measures Assessed in This Section ................................................................... 35 Before ................................................................................................................................ 35 After ................................................................................................................................... 37 Impact and Analysis .......................................................................................................... 38 Impact of the Risk Assessment Tool: Was the PSA followed? ................................................. 39 Reform Measures Assessed in This Section ................................................................... 39 Before ................................................................................................................................ 41 After ................................................................................................................................... 44 Impact and Analysis .......................................................................................................... 47 Experience of Bond Court.......................................................................................................... 50 Reform Measures Assessed in This Section ................................................................... 50 Before ................................................................................................................................ 50 After ................................................................................................................................... 51 Impact and Analysis .......................................................................................................... 51 V. Conclusions.............................................................................................................................. 53 VI. Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 54 1. End the Use of Secured Money Bond in Illinois ............................................................... 54 2. Stop Unfairly Funding the Courts Through Bond Money ................................................. 55 3. Improve Access to Central Bond Court and Jail Data...................................................... 56 4. Facilitate Attendance at Future Court Dates with Reminders and Other Supports ......... 56 5. Train Judges and other Court Personnel on Detention Hearings & Pretrial Release Procedures ........................................................................................................................ 57 6. Ensure Fair Ordering and Timing of Bond Court Proceedings ........................................ 58 7. Improve Pretrial Services .................................................................................................. 59 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... 60 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................ 60 About the cover photo: Tyler Smith of Chicago Community Bond Fund speaks at a Coalition to End Money Bond rally outside Central Bond Court on September 18, 2017, the day a new court rule limiting the use of money bail took effect. 3 Introduction The Coalition to End Money Bond The Coalition to End Money Bond formed in May 2016 as a group of member organizations with the shared goal of stopping the large-scale jailing of people simply because they were unable to pay a monetary bond. In addition to ending the obvious unfairness of allowing access to money determine who is incarcerated and who is free pending trial, the Coalition is committed to reducing the overall number of people in Cook County Jail and under pretrial supervision as part of a larger fight against mass incarceration. The Coalition to End Money Bond is tackling bail reform and the abolition of money bond as part of its member organizations' larger efforts to achieve