Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps and State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth updated the county board Tuesday night on the initial impact of the state’s new Safety Act that did away with cashless bond.
Cripps says there has been nothing he didn’t anticipate.
“Most of our job is basically the same, but these folks are not staying in jail. Today (Tuesday) I think we took 15 or 16 over from the jail and eight of those got received. That is exactly what I anticipated. The Safety Act is not our friend and the Safety Act is not going to be our friend anytime soon.”
Cripps says since the act took effect the jail population has dropped to 64 inmates, down six. But there are even fewer county jail prisoners, as the number of federal prisoners has increased to 21. Cripps thinks the number of prisoners will eventually come back up as those on cashless bond will go back to jail for pre-release violations.
State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth says most of those with past failure to appear warrants are getting a fresh start along with new prisoners. He says of the 7 or 8 he’s filed a petition to hold without bond, two or three have been granted.
“We had one guy who got sanctioned because he violated a court order. We said don’t go somewhere and he went somewhere. He’s getting sanctioned to spend a week in jail. There is some accountability there, but in the short term, it is kinda of a wait-and-see. As the sheriff said, the numbers are going down now. We didn’t let anybody out the first thing Monday morning. Some counties did. We are taking it up as their cases come up if their attorney asks for them to be moved to be moved to the Safety Act no cash bail, then we are taking it up. But we didn’t just say you, you, and you…you are getting out.”
Hudspeth says those charged with crimes can now only be held for their danger to a specific person or the community as a whole, a likelihood of fleeing or committing the same non-violent act multiple times.
Law Enforcement Committee Chair and Centralia Police Administrative Lieutenant Steve Whritenour said the changes have been challenging with lots of calls for guidance to the State’s Attorney. He’s calling the Safety Act an ‘anti-police’ law.
