Anti-Israel agitators are expected to descend upon the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago, where authorities anticipate potentially hundreds of arrests, putting the state's no-cash-bail law to the ultimate test.
Last year, Illinois enacted its Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), eliminating cash bail, which critics say is discriminatory toward low-income offenders because it is more difficult for them to post high bonds than wealthy offenders.
Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans said the county has made several temporary changes to ensure a smooth judicial process in the event of mass protests and arrests.
"We have been meeting for weeks with more than 50 people from county, city, state, and federal agencies to prepare for the possibility of multiple arrests. We want to make sure the police are able to focus on providing security and that the rights of arrested individuals are scrupulously respected," Judge Evans said in a July 24 statement. "We thank our fellow government officials and our court staff for their continued cooperation in this important endeavor."
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Changes include additional staffing at a temporary court facility. Dozens of Cook County judges have cleared their non-essential proceedings in their civil and criminal court calendars this week to make room for any cases coming out of the protests.
The temporary court location on West Belmont Avenue will be open from 8 a.m. to midnight through Aug. 31 and have 57 judges trained on PFA requirements, Cook County said in a press release.
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Protesters arrested outside the convention may not even need to face a judge under the PFA, which allows for certain suspects to be cited and released.
"There are two ways that people can be released at Belmont and Western: one will be by certificates, for example, with a date to return if it's not a very serious allegation. If it is a very serious allegation, the first appearance has to take place there, in person, and … our judges will have to be there. They'll have to make a decision as to whether the person can be released into the community or detained," Evans told WTTW.
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Loyola Chicago's Center for Criminal Justice has been tracking the impact of the PFA since it took effect in September 2023. So far, researchers have found that average daily populations and jail bookings have decreased slightly more than typical expectations before the law was enacted.
"However, these patterns varied across individual counties and county types. In some counties, the decrease in bookings and pretrial jail ADPs seen after the implementation of the PFA was within what would have been expected given the seasonality of crime, arrests, and pretrial jail admissions, while in other counties it was larger than what would have been normally expected. It is likely that the degree to which pretrial jail bookings and pretrial jail populations changed after the PFA reflects specific local practices and implementation of the PFA," researchers note on the Loyola Criminal Justice Center website.
