Pretrial Fairness Act

After an initial decline in beds filled at the McLean County jail, numbers have creeped back up since cashless bail began in Illinois. Experts say pretrial release violations are to blame.

The FAIR Act seeks to establish a state public defenders office to ease equity gaps for under-resourced counties, cap caseloads and provide oversight and advocacy. Illinois is one of five states without such an office.

The changes come after the Illinois Supreme Court convened a five-person task force in January to address an “unprecedented and unsustainable” load on the courts tasked with reviewing whether lower court judges applied the law correctly.

McLean County State's Attorney Erika Reynolds said the Pretrial Fairness Act [PFA], which took effect last September as part of a sweeping criminal justice reform law, takes away too much discretion from prosecutors and judges to decide which defendants should remain in custody while awaiting trial.

The elimination of cash bail as a means to detain people before trial has brought change to McLean County, including heavier workloads and lower jail populations, as officials navigate the implications of a massive rewrite of the state’s pretrial process.