IL Set to End Cash Bail in 2023. It’s a Good Thing. Here’s Why.

HB 3653, the Illinois SAFE-T Act, was signed into law in IL last summer, with cash bail finally coming to an end in IL in 2023. Here’s why it’s a good thing for communities of color.

I recently got a text from a good friend in TX who heard about a “Purge Law” coming to Chicago. I know that there is plenty of misinformation about cash bail in Illinois, or just in general. Governor Pritzger signed the bill into law last July 2021, which takes a number of steps to help end systemic racism in the state of IL (requires cops to wear body cams, diverts low level offenders into substance use treatment programs, etc). Among the great things on the list?

Illinois SAFE-T Act: What is in it? | WBEZ Chicago

Ending cash bail in Illinois.

Whenever I hear the words Cash bail, I conjure up an image of Kalief Browder. Yesterday morning I drove back from the south suburbs visiting family and stopped in Chatham for gas. The billboards made me sick to my stomach. There are billboards in Chatham, a community on the south side of Chicago that is home to a 98.7% Black population, calling abortion murder (wow) and calling for people to oppose a “Get out of jail free card” end to cash bail in IL. This type of fear mongering and moral exploitation in minority neighborhoods saddens is wrong. It instills fear in historically divested…