Sangamon County hosts Illinois’ capital city Springfield. And Jack Campbell is the chief law enforcement officer there and he not only oversees the sheriff’s department but also the county jail. He appeared live with Greg Bishop this morning on the radio to talk about the first few days of “No Cash Bail” in our state. The interview proved quite telling. Campbell says they are doing their best to keep bad people off the streets.
Pretty much all sheriffs that give a damn about their constituents are doing this. But sometimes they don’t have State’s Attorneys that can devote the resources to all of these extra hearings.
In Sangamon County, they’re lucky enough to have a local prosecutor who does this.
With the joint effort of Sheriff Campbell and Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright, the Sangamon County Jail’s inmate population is holding steady. Campbell admits to finding work-arounds and “loopholes” in the law to their advantage. They’ve had 50 inmates held under the old system petition for a transition into the new system and release without bail. Of six or eight hearings held thus far, Dan Wright has blocked all from release.
Here’s what wasn’t said… Those 50 inmates have just screwed themselves. If they aren’t released, they won’t be released until trial. Period. At least under the old system, if their friends and family could come up with the cash to post bail, they could get released. Not under the new system. And by petitioning for their cases to be heard under the new system, they’ve entered the new system and there’s no going back.
One “loophole” I’m sure prosecutors are using which wasn’t discussed was the provision that allows pre-trial detainment for those who have blown off previous court hearings. I have no doubt that prosecutors will use any history – even a single instance – of an individual failing to appear for a hearing or trial as basis for detainment if they believe the individual poses any risk to the community or a flight risk.
As such, if a judge agrees, these people would be held until trial without any hope of release.
And frankly, people who are arrested are generally from the criminal class or fringe criminal class. In the past, showing up for court hearings has, to them at least, been sort of an “optional” thing as there was little consequence other than a browbeating from the judges for a couple of minutes, along with some empty threats seldom followed through upon.
In other words, many career criminals with lots of previous arrests pretty much all have at least one or two failures to appear in their past, which means that under this new system, they don’t get bail. They get jail. Without hope of release.
And those rich people who could afford bail under the old system? If they’ve made good life choices enough that they are successful enough to pay their own bail, they generally don’t blow off court. They probably even put on nice clothes for court. They’re going to fall into the “presumptively released” category of arrestees on those rare occasions they get picked up by the police.
In other words, all these criminal-coddling bigoted Black Caucus politicians and their fellow wine-sipping hard-left comrades who think that “No cash bail” was somehow going to be this great salvation for blacks “unfairly” arrested by police have just made matters worse for blacks.
Because you know, in some of the minds of these people leading Illinois, they think that it’s not ghetto culture that raises criminals who get arrested in numbers far exceeding their proportion of the general population, but racist cops out to get black people.
And don’t even get us started about public schools not educating kids, leaving them poorly equipped for successful lives, careers and families. Instead, as borderline illiterates, they have few opportunities for prestige outside of gangs and the gang lifestyle. And those aren’t conducive to a long, prosperous and productive life.
You know who else they’ve made it worse for?
Blacks and other inner city residents who are so often the victims of these criminals who, if they’ve made their past court dates, will presumably be released under this new system.
Here’s the video of Sheriff Campbell from this morning, and then I’ll bring you a concrete example of politicians making matters worse with this new bill afterwards.
Do you remember from way back in March 2021 when Elgie Sims was allegedly accosted by another driver who threatened him with a gun while the good Senator was on his way to his Springfield home-away-from-home while the General Assembly was in session?
In a nutshell, Sims was outraged – OUTRAGED! – that the mope that he says brandished a gun and threatened to shoot him was released with only $1500 in cash. “Cash bail doesn’t work!” he bleated to the newspapers.
On day one of his beloved “No Cash Bail” a suspect accused of doing pretty much the exact same thing was release without posting a thin dime.
From CWB Chicago:
CHICAGO — It turns out that Illinois’ brand-new cashless bail system isn’t working quite the way one of its biggest champions thought it would.
State Sen. Elgie Sims of Chicago sponsored the legislation, and two months after it passed, he had a personal experience that he claimed served as a perfect example of how no-cash bail would make the state safer.
In March 2021, Sims was driving in Springfield when another driver allegedly drove up behind him, honked his horn, and flashed a gun at him.
The man passed him, then Sims pulled alongside and told the man that he was on the phone with 911, the senator recalled…
Cops caught the suspect, and prosecutors charged him with unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a firearm with a revoked Firearm Owner’s ID card, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The man went home by paying a $1,500 bail deposit.
“By him being released on bail, he’s free to do this again,” Sims told the State-Journal Register at the time. He called the incident a “perfect example of how cash bail doesn’t make people more safe.”
Really, Elgie?
Sims might be surprised to learn that on Monday, the first day of cashless bail, a Chicago man appeared in a detention hearing on the same general allegations. The judge sent him home.
This gun-wielding criminal didn’t even have to post $1500! Guilty as hell, free as a bird.
Just before midnight Sunday, a 23-year-old woman called 911 and reported that another driver pointed a gun at her as they drove in Chicago. She described the man and the weapon and gave police the guy’s license plate number, according to a Chicago police arrest report.
Cops quickly located the vehicle in the 1000 block of West 35th Street. And they detained 29-year-old Deangelo Batteast-Spears, who was placing items in the car, the report said.
Officers patted Batteast-Spears down and allegedly found a loaded handgun. According to the police report, he told officers he carries the weapon because he owns a vending machine company and frequently travels with money.
When cops asked him why he thought they stopped him, he replied something to the effect of “she tried to run me off the road,” the report said.
On Monday afternoon, during the very first cashless bail detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, prosecutors didn’t even ask Judge Mary Marubio to hold Batteast-Spears in custody.
The judge released him with no restrictions other than the usual order to attend court and not contact the victim.
Sorry to break the news, senator.
Elgie Sims is more interested in pandering for votes than keeping residents safe.
This state is f’ed up.
Elgie Sims is the typical clueless woke liberal scum that makes everyone unsafe. It’s still early into the newest revolving door program, give it time and people will start dying because of this bullshit.
You blurred the dog’s eyes. I laughed. If you are right about arrestees being held on “loopholes” in the law, then IL Democrats will Next do away with all Pretrial detention. Nothing destructive is a bridge too far for these whack job tyrants.