Posted on 07/18/2017 11:58:46 AM PDT by PBRCat
Cook County judges will soon be explicitly required to set affordable bond amounts for defendants who do not pose a danger to the public.
Beginning Sept. 18, judges will be prohibited from setting a higher bond than felony defendants can afford to pay. The same rule will apply to misdemeanor cases starting in January.
Advocates of bond reform, including Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, applauded the decision.
"There is often no clear relationship between the posting of a cash bond and securing the safety of the community or the appearance of a defendant," Foxx said in a statement Monday. "As a result, far too many people have been detained pre-trial because they are poor and unable to post even minimal amounts for bond."
Since taking office late last year, Foxx has taken several steps toward reforming bail. In March she announced that prosecutors would no longer oppose the release of some detainees held on nonviolent offenses who were stuck in jail because they could not pay up to $1,000 cash on their bonds. In June her office announced that prosecutors would recommend recognizance bonds for some defendants.
It costs about $160 per day or nearly $60,000 per year to house one person at the jail...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Chicago cannot control violent crime, so the answer is to empty the jails and release all criminals including those who cannot make bail???
What will tomorrow's headlines be when a nonviolent criminal released from jail resorts to violence after being freed from custody?
All those drug dealers back on the street again and again and again.
“...judges will be prohibited from setting a higher bond than felony defendants can afford to pay..”
I always thought the purpose of a bond was to motivate the person to return to court - or be out of a pile of money.
Now - with no skin in the game, why come back to play?
SJWs win again...
Setting high bail for felony charges, not to mention prosecuting shoplifters would have the same effects.
Foxx is encouraging more criminal behavior in a city drowning in it.
There is skin in the new game........ black skin
Thugs siting in cells don’t make tax dollars for the courthouse crowd.
Exactly right! Several police officers said that this policy will waste more time and money as defendants skip court dates and the police officers scheduled to testify will have to sit waiting for cases to be continued. Plus more warrants will have to be issued to haul the defendants back to court.
Kim Foxx is an absolute joke of a prosecutor.
My son was hit by a man without insurance and a suspended license. I asked one of the officers, later on, why he had not even received a citation for running a red light and driving without insurance or license. His response was that there was no point because he wouldn’t pay it anyway. This is similar. No incentive to change how they behave.
$160 a day is three times the national average for County custody. I’d look at that first. Then use all that sweet forfeited bond money to pay some of the cost.
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