In another transparent attempt to distract from his failed presidency, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to rant about a successful progressive criminal justice reform. This time, Trump is blaming individual crimes in New York and Illinois on reforms reducing the role of money in pretrial jailing. Clearly, he hopes that we won’t notice that he is tanking the economy, covering up his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and slashing funding for Medicare, Medicaid, public education, violence prevention programs and essentially any critical service for anyone who isn’t a billionaire.
Illinois is making progress. Crime is down, and our state leaders are funding programs that work. Our state has invested millions of dollars in violence prevention programs and bolstered the social safety net. These policy decisions stand in stark contrast to Trump’s reckless moves to gut funding for domestic violence victims, system-involved children, people suffering from addiction and those considering suicide. Rather than lashing out, the president should sit down and let adults get back to work improving the lives of marginalized people across the U.S.
As is his modus operandi, the president lied about how our system of detention works under the Pretrial Fairness Act. Like Illinois Republicans who are more interested in spreading fear than debating facts, Trump suggested the Pretrial Fairness Act lets dangerous people accused of crimes flood the streets. As everyone who covers the pretrial system with integrity knows, ending cash bail doesn’t mean dangerous people are roaming the streets. It means that a judge decides whether a person should be released from jail pending trial based on risk and not wealth.
In fact, Illinois courts are now spending more time on each case where someone accused of a violent crime may be released while he or she awaits trial. Research from Loyola University Chicago shows that across the state, these hearings are now lasting between 10 to 30 minutes, sometimes going as long as an hour. Under the old system, bond hearings took a mere few minutes, sometimes even seconds. Illinois judges now have more information about each case and are spending more time evaluating pretrial decisions than almost any jurisdiction in the country.
Guardrails within the law ensure that courts are spending time focusing on the most serious cases. Under the old cash bond system, courts, on occasion, were spending as much time evaluating pretrial release on minor cases as they were when people were charged with murder. The Pretrial Fairness Act is ensuring that courts focus time on cases that could potentially impact public safety.
If judges believe someone is a danger to the community, they can detain that person in jail pending trial. Under the cash bail system, that person — if he or she had access to the right amount of money — would have been able to purchase his or her freedom. A system based on risk and not wealth makes sense, and it is unsurprising that we have not seen an increase in crime since the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act. It is equally unsurprising that the president prefers a system that benefits the wealthy over one tied to public safety.
There are numerous contributors to crime, but perhaps the president’s cruel policies will play the largest role in destabilizing our communities, which can inevitably lead to increases in crime. In just six months, the Trump administration has gutted substance use prevention and mental health treatment programs. He has cut over $800 million in grants that supports violence intervention programs and survivor support programming. He canceled a grant to prevent domestic violence. These are not the actions of a man serious about protecting the public. And when Trump’s policies result in more people breaking the law, he will use these incidents to justify doubling down on the failed policies of mass incarceration as other leaders have done in the past.
Decades of research on policies of austerity and mass incarceration show they don’t stop crime and have a detrimental effect on larger society. With entire generations of Black and Brown men behind bars, their families’ lives on the outside are also destroyed. Many communities are still feeling the long-term devastation from the policy choices of the past. If we naively choose to repeat those mistakes, we will only further entrench the inequality and violence these communities are already wrestling with.
For months leading up to the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act, Illinoisans were warned about “the end of days” and “the purge.” But two years later, we can see that crime did not go up after the Pretrial Fairness Act. In fact, certain serious crimes have plummeted. The president’s attack on this law, like his budget cuts, proves once again that he isn’t interested in keeping our communities safe. We are proud to live in a state that operates in evidence and reality instead of fear. If only we could say the same about our federal government.
State Rep. Gregg Johnson represents the 72nd District in the Illinois House and state Rep. Will Guzzardi represents the 39th District in the Illinois House.