In the days after the horrific burning of a woman on a CTA train, allegedly by a clearly deranged habitual criminal suspect last month, some in the news media immediately focused on their go-to issue: The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T Act.
“Illinois leaders blast SAFE-T Act after repeat offender charged with lighting woman on fire on CTA Blue Line,” reported WGN, as just one example. Former Cook County and federal prosecutor Bob Milan told the station: “The SAFE-T Act forces state attorneys to file petitions instead of just giving judges the discretion [to detain arrested suspects]”
Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey demanded that judges be given “100 percent discretion” to detain anyone they viewed as a danger to society. Several other sheriffs have since weighed in with the same demand, although some also want to increase the number of what are known as “detainable offenses,” which are the alleged crimes that allow judges to keep suspects locked up before trial.
The state law was mentioned repeatedly because the prime suspect Lawrence Reed was not held in custody in August after he attacked a social worker at a psychiatric center, knocking her unconscious, giving her a concussion and damaging her eye.
However, Reed was charged in August with aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm, which is a detainable offense under the SAFE-T Act. Considering his long criminal history and lots of other factors, he was a prime candidate for pretrial detention.
Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez instead sided against prosecutors, who argued for detention, and with the public defender in the case, who said that Reed was back on his medication and doing better. During the hearing, Molina-Gonzalez publicly acknowledged Reed’s long list of 70-plus arrests and convictions, and, according to CWBChicago.com, took a report from a court officer claiming that Reed’s chances of committing another crime was “four out of six” if released, with a likelihood of violence. After saying she couldn’t lock up everyone that prosecutors wanted detained, the judge ended up placing Reed on monitored home confinement, then another judge subsequently loosened that restriction.
So much for the idea of giving judges complete discretion without prosecutor involvement.
It’s worth noting that pretty much all of Reed’s previous offenses and releases happened under the cash bail system, before the SAFE-T Act’s Pre-Trial Fairness provisions took effect in September of 2023 — a fact ignored by the detractors.
Also, the Cook County Jail has experienced a 16 percentage point increase in inmates between the end of last year through the end of this year’s third quarter, according to a Loyola tracking dashboard. The county jail’s population was about 8% higher at the end of the third quarter than it was just before the SAFE-T Act was fully enacted.
And a chart recently posted by CWBChicago.com, which focuses exclusively on crime and is not exactly known as a liberal site, shows that a wide array of violent offenses committed by people awaiting trial in Cook County dropped from 116 victims in 2021 (before the SAFE-T Act) to 52 last year and 37 so far this year. Attempted murder victims dropped from 50 victims in 2022 to eight so far this year.
Point being, too many reporters, pundits and others are far too quick to bring up everybody’s favorite bogeyman before any facts are known or even acknowledged.
Is the SAFE-T Act perfect? Of course not. No law designed by human beings can ever be perfect. Could it be improved? Again, humans should always try to improve on their work. But the people at the table should not be the ones who are angrily and ignorantly preening for the TV cameras.
Also, one of those downstate sheriffs advocating for changes in the SAFE-T Act kinda let the cat out of the bag last week.
In addition to granting judges more discretion and increasing the number of detainable offense, Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard talked about the loss of local revenue with the abolition of cash bail.
The old bail system helped fund an array of things like jail staffing, victim services and law enforcement, Bullard said.
“The elimination of cash bail has created financial gaps for counties statewide,” the sheriff claimed.
Oddly, though, Bullard also griped that “some arrestees are now being held longer while awaiting a judge, where previously they could bond out quickly.”
So, the sheriff is upset that people deemed dangerous by judges are being held too long behind bars?
That kinda makes me think this is a lot about the money.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.