A set of controversial reforms to Illinois' cash bail system went into effect this week, changing a decades-old system of holding people in jail until their trial begins when they can't afford to pay bail.
Backers of the change hope it will eliminate a hardship which has fallen primarily on marginalized communities. Social justice groups, some elected officials and others have hailed the Pretrial Fairness Act as a breakthrough.
Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, president of the Senate, said it should help thousands of people who often lost their jobs, housing and even custody of children because they couldn't afford bail.
"Risk-based detention takes effect, people who -- I will remind you, are considered innocent in the eyes of the law -- will now forfeit their freedom based on the threat they pose," Harmon explained. "They will not forfeit their freedom because they lack the cash to buy it."
Opponents of the act, including prosecutors and other law enforcement officials, warned it could put dangerous criminals back on the street. The new law gives judges more latitude to look at a suspect's background and other factors to consider their likelihood of committing more crimes if they return to the community.
Implementation of the act was delayed several months by a court challenge, which was recently resolved. Under the previous system, thousands of people faced financial and family consequences when they could not afford to pay for their release from jail.
Rep. Chris Welch, D-Westchester, Speaker of the House, predicted the measure will help keep families together.
"Today is the day that we stop criminalizing poverty," Welch emphasized. "Today is the day we end a system that keeps you in jail solely because you lack resources."
The Pretrial Fairness Act is part of a sweeping package of criminal justice reforms approved by the Illinois General Assembly in 2021. The law contains a number of changes affecting policing and the court system, including pretrial detention and bail, sentencing and corrections.
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More than 153,000 Kentuckians are still being denied the right to vote because of a past felony conviction, according to recent data from the League of Women Voters of Kentucky.
More than 191,000 Kentuckians regained the right to vote under Gov. Andy Beshear's 2019 executive order, yet the report found the Commonwealth of Kentucky disenfranchised more than 4.5% of its voting-eligible population in last year's presidential election.
Tip Moody, member of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, said the state is experiencing a troubling trend.
"We are now number four in the country," Moody pointed out. "We are worse in our percentage of disenfranchised citizens than we were two years ago."
Between April 2020 and last Jan. 2, the Kentucky Department of Corrections vetted and forwarded 815 individual petitions requesting a partial pardon to the Office of the Governor. So far during his time in office, Beshear has granted 114 pardons.
Becky Jones, vice president of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, said the state has lagged behind on the issue of voting rights restoration because it has not been a priority among lawmakers.
"I think it could be a priority for legislators if the public started applying pressure to them to make them understand how important it is to them," Jones observed. "We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people that have been affected."
Kentucky is one of only three states in the country to disenfranchise or strip away the right to vote for a citizen who has committed a felony offense for the rest of their life.
Moody explained he had his voting rights restored but pointed out the journey for most other residents is an uphill battle.
"People like me, regardless of what is in our past and what we are doing in our present, there is still a stigma associated with that, and there is a lack of value," Moody added.
The report showed nearly 2,000 Kentuckians with felony convictions had their sentences extended in the past year, because they could not pay what the court ordered them to pay, creating a further barrier to having the means to begin the voting rights restoration process.
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As Mississippi grapples with chronic violence and unconstitutional conditions in its prisons, new research provides a roadmap for reducing harm and improving safety for both incarcerated individuals and staff.
Nancy Rodriguez, professor of criminology law and society at the University of California and study author, examined prison systems in seven states, highlighting the complex drivers of violence while offering evidence-based strategies to address them. Her findings show that there is a small fraction of people who will repeatedly engage in violence.
"Approximately about 10% of people who are in our prison systems will continue to engage in violence now if we know who these individuals are, state systems are able or have the capacity to identify them and target them in ways that would certainly reduce violence," she said.
That includes identifying high-risk individuals and providing them with targeted programming and case management. Rodriguez's findings come as the U.S. Department of Justice has condemned conditions in three Mississippi prisons, citing rampant violence, understaffing, and inadequate medical care.
The study also revealed that the harms of violence are often underreported. Rodriguez emphasized that violence in prisons is not isolated, and it impacts everyone, even beyond the prison walls.
"Violence is pervasive, and the harms of violence are profound, and we heard this both from incarcerated individuals, and we heard this from staff, and unfortunately, the data mechanisms that are in place, that should be capturing this are absent," she continued.
Rodriguez, part of the Prison Violence Consortium, found that 71% of violence occurs between incarcerated individuals, while 29% targets staff. In Mississippi, officials have implemented reforms such as increasing correctional staff, enhancing security, and expanding de-escalation training and mental health support, leading to reported reductions in violence. However, Rodriguez emphasizes that more can be done, including creating a uniform definition of prison violence and improving documentation of injuries.
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The ACLU of Ohio is calling for a repeal of the state's current death penalty laws, but some conservative state lawmakers have another idea.
House Bill 136, passed in 2021, prohibits the death penalty for offenders with a mental illness. Senate Bill 101, proposed in 2024, would abolish the death penalty.
Two Ohio senators with support from the Ohio Catholic Conference have introduced legislation which would combine death penalty revisions with restrictions on abortion and what they refer to as "assisted suicide," under one law.
Sean McCann, policy analyst for the ACLU of Ohio, said legislators acted this week.
"The bill that was announced by the group of lawmakers and the Catholic Conference of Ohio now has been introduced in the Ohio House as House Bill 72," McCann noted. "After reviewing the language, we remain steadfastly opposed to this attempt to tie the death penalty repeal to restrictions on abortion and medical aid in dying."
Proponents of the bill see it as tying the three policies under one "pro-life" umbrella. But under current Ohio law, medical aid in dying for people with terminal illnesses is not permitted, and state funding for abortion services is illegal. The bill would remove funding for abortion medications, which critics say would violate Ohio's Reproductive Freedom Amendment.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office Capital Crimes Report indicated between July 18, 1981, the state's last execution date, through Dec. 31, 2023, 336 people have received a combined 341 death sentences. Of those, 56 sentences have been carried out. The report also stated a condemned inmate spends more than 21 years on death row as attorneys file appeals.
McCann emphasized the ACLU of Ohio does not support adding issues like abortion to the debate.
"We certainly view these issues as two separate issues," McCann stressed. "And we would also remind legislators, Ohio voters did approve the reproductive freedom Amendment by an overwhelming 57% to 43% margin in November 2023."
McCann argued the numbers showed voters do not want the legislature to continue tampering with their reproductive freedom. The ACLU of Ohio supports a repeal of the death penalty with a replacement of a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
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