Community Organizations Call On IL’s State’s Attorney to Cease All Attempts to Undermine the PFA

Today, nearly one hundred organizations sent an open letter to the Illinois State’s Attorney Association urging them to align with the collective statewide effort to faithfully implement the Pretrial Fairness Act.

Since the advocacy for the Pretrial Fairness Act began, many prosecutors from across the state have opposed this reform and defended wealth-based jailing. Some have gone so far as to spread fear-mongering and misinformation about the law and even filed a lawsuit to challenge it in court. Now that the legal challenges have failed and the law has been upheld by the Supreme Court, it is time to put the defense of the old system to rest. Wealth-based jailing is becoming a thing of the past in Illinois in less than seven days, and any efforts to undermine the successful implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act would serve to dismiss the will of the people, flout the rule of law, and jeopardize public safety.

As we prepare to monitor the courts and identify any hindrances to effective implementation of the new law of the land, it is critical that all court actors and elected officials cast differences aside to protect the rights of all members of our community, who are depending on these efforts to bring more fairness, justice, and due process to the pretrial system in our state. We stand ready to participate in good-faith conversations and collaborations to take our state from policy to progress as we finally become the first state in the country to completely eliminate the archaic and unjust practice that has plagued our communities, especially the most marginalized members, for far too long.

Originally published on September 13, 2023 by The Coalition to End Money Bond & The Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice