Marion County State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth says while disappointed with the decision, he sees little chance of the SAFE-T act and cashless bond NOT taking effect as scheduled for September 18th.
Hudspeth says a Zoom call was held among State Attorneys on Tuesday afternoon and there was discussion of asking the Illinois Supreme Court to reconsider, but he doesn’t see anything that would cause the justices to reconsider. Hudspeth also doesn’t see much hope of getting the US Supreme Court to overturn the new law.
As a result, Hudspeth says it’s time to get to work to implement the new law. Meetings that were initially held last year to get ready for cashless bond to take effect will be revisited with those involved in the court system as well as the police officers on the street.
“We’re going to get back together to refresh what our process and what our procedures are going to be. Also, last fall I also had two different meetings with law enforcement officers to tell them how things are going to be handled so they know what to do as for as taking someone to jail or releasing them on a notice to appear. We’re going to try and get another meeting set up for the same purpose to go over that and refresh things with law enforcement so when September 18th we’re efficiently and effectively running things.”
Hudspeth will be strongly discouraging bringing non-violent offenders to jail but says officers will still have jurisdiction in non-violent cases where an offender is causing a repeat problem. For most, officers will now give them a notice to appear in court.
While there will be no weekend court required as originally feared, probable cause will be determined over the weekend with anyone remaining in custody coming before the court on Monday to determine if they should stay in custody. Hudspeth says that the process is very similar to what is being done now.
Hudspeth says for those who are multiple offenders of not showing up in court, the new law could result in them being held without bond.
“Someone has maybe a Class 3 or Class 4 drug possession case but has a history or shows a history going forward of not appearing in court, not complying with whatever pretrial conditions may be set by the judge, the state could petition to have them detained without bail pending trial which would certainly be a hardship on those defendants, but that is what we’ll have to do to make sure that people come to court so we can resolve their cases promptly.”
Hudspeth notes there were some changes made in a trailer bill passed by the legislature last fall that will make the new law more workable.
