Top Democrats say they would consider small changes to Illinois’ SAFE-T Act

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Capitol News Illinois) — Some of Illinois’ top Democrats say they’re open to considering targeted changes to Illinois’ controversial SAFE-T Act this spring if a forthcoming judicial report says they’re needed.

Both Gov. JB Pritzker and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, say the changes — if ultimately deemed necessary — would be narrow despite Republicans’ desire to see the law drastically overhauled. Welch said he is awaiting a report on the law that is still being crafted by Cook County’s top judge.

State lawmakers passed the SAFE-T Act in January 2021 as part of a series of initiatives led by the legislative Black Caucus in response to civil unrest and racial justice conversations after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. The most controversial part of the law is the Pretrial Fairness Act, which eliminated cash bail.

Welch and Pritzker noted that it is routine for state lawmakers to review and tweak any law on the books. The sweeping criminal justice reform law that passed in 2021 has already been subject to multiple amendments.

“After a couple of years of data, you know, sometimes you do trailer legislation,” Welch told Capitol News Illinois. “Is this the time to do that? It may be, but there may not be anything to do at all.”

Elimination of cash bail

The Pretrial Fairness Act takes wealth out of the equation as judges determine whether an individual charged with a crime is incarcerated while awaiting trial. While officers are directed to cite and release low-level nonviolent offenders rather than arrest them, violent or more serious crimes can still end in arrest and potential detention pending trial.

The new system allows state’s attorneys to petition for pretrial detention, and judges can determine whether to grant it based on an offender’s risk of reoffending or fleeing prosecution.

The law also instructs courts to take the “least restrictive” means of ensuring a person’s appearance in court, meaning nonviolent offenders often end up on electronic monitoring as opposed to awaiting trial from a jail cell. Proponents note that crime is down since the SAFE-T Act’s implementation, as is the state’s jail population.

“I think the SAFE-T Act is working,” Sen. Elgie Sims, a Chicago Democrat who led the law through the Senate, told Capitol News Illinois. “Is it perfect? No, no law is ever perfect. But again, I think we’ve got data that shows that communities are more safe because the SAFE-T Act is in place.”

An October report by the Loyola University Center for Criminal Justice found monthly pretrial jail populations had fallen 7% statewide since the PFA went into effect, but pretrial supervision populations had risen 33% during the same period. In Cook County, jail populations had increased by about 2% despite an initial drop after the PFA became law.

The total statewide population of people awaiting trial on either electronic monitoring or in a jail cell has actually grown 17% since the law took effect, according to the October data.

Renewed scrutiny

Opponents of the law during its passage had called on lawmakers to grant judges greater discretion and to limit the number of circumstances where the law prohibits them from ordering detention. Since the law’s implementation, its harshest critics have frequently pointed to instances of individuals who reoffend, often in cases where a judge has denied a prosecutor’s request for pretrial detention.

One recent event that’s put renewed scrutiny on the law involves 26-year-old Bethany MaGee, who was lit on fire on an “L” train in Chicago in November. Prosecutors said Lawrence Reed, the man charged with terrorism and arson in connection with the case, has been arrested 72 times over the last 30 years, Block Club Chicago reported. He’s been convicted 15 times, including for arson in 2020 after lighting a fire outside the Thompson Center, the former state office building in Chicago.

At the time of the alleged attack on MaGee, Reed was out on electronic monitoring. State’s attorneys had sought his detention in August as a threat to public safety after he allegedly physically assaulted a nurse at a Berwyn hospital. WGN reported that the Cook County judge denied prosecutors’ request despite the evidence.

Illinois law requires individuals on electronic monitoring to wear ankle monitors but entitles them to two days of free movement, or about two eight-hour periods, per week.

Though some have blamed the SAFE-T Act for Reed’s “L” train crime, Sims argued the case shows why the state needs to be investing more in mental health resources.

Possible changes

The state’s Democratic leaders didn’t go into specifics about what changes, if any, they’re currently considering.

“I think everybody is open to listening to what changes might be made,” Pritzker said at a November news conference following the “L” incident.

But like Welch, Pritzker added that changing laws is a routine part of the legislative process. The General Assembly has also amended parts of the SAFE-T Act since it was first passed, particularly as it pertained to offenses that are “non-detainable.”

Before the General Assembly makes any changes, Welch said he wants to see a report from Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach’s office that is on track to be released at the end of January.

“If the chief judge comes to me and has some ideas, I’ve told him I’m going to be all ears because our goal is always to try to make things better,” Welch said.

Welch added it’s possible the changes don’t have to come from the General Assembly and can be made administratively by the courts.

Welch said he also plans to have his public safety working group — a select group of House Democrats that discusses issues behind closed doors — consider possible changes to the law. Sims said he also has not identified any specific changes.

“I’m always open to anything that’s going to improve public safety and make people in our communities more safe and make sure our criminal legal system is more just,” Sims said.

GOP proposals

Republicans have more specific ideas about how the SAFE-T Act should be amended.

House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, acknowledged in an interview with Capitol News Illinois that her party’s minority status in Springfield means her caucus’ focus has to be on making changes to improve the law rather than gutting it altogether, as many Republicans have called for.

“We have quite a few fixes that we hope will be embraced,” she said. “I think to say, you know, let’s support the repeal of the SAFE-T Act, we know … that ship sailed, so let’s just put the fixes in that can still make this a workable policy.”

Ideas proposed by Republicans include making all felonies eligible for detention rather than violent felonies, allowing a person’s pretrial release to be revoked if they commit any new crime while released, eliminating language that allows people on pretrial home confinement free movement, and creating a presumption that a person should be detained when they are charged with a crime against a minor.

“You saw a lot of that language with the SAFE-T Act with very broad language, which leaves too much to interpretation,” McCombie said.

(Reporting by Ben Szalinski and Jerry Nowicki, Capitol News Illinois)

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.