Did you see this gem? At the one-year anniversary of America’s first “No Cash Bail” law in our state, the Cook County Circuit Clerk says three-quarters of those released under “No Cash Bail” failed to show up for their court dates. What’s equally remarkable is that the Chicago Sun-Times did a bit of actual journalism and courageously reported the information – even if they did spend a lot of digital ink in 510 additional words trying to refute the numbers and make excuses.
Three in four arrestees failed to appear.
Amazing what happens when there’s no consequences for blowing off court dates.
From the Sun-Times:
Ahead of the first anniversary of the end of cash bail in Illinois, Cook County’s clerk of court released a statistic that mystified other stakeholders in the county justice system: She warned that three out of four unconfined defendants have failed to show up for court dates over the past year.
In a letter to Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, Clerk Iris Martinez wrote, “Together, we need to ensure that victims, witnesses, lawyers, judges, and police officers are not attending tens of thousands of hearings without the defendants being present.”
Martinez said defendants have failed to appear in court for hearings in roughly 67,000 of 90,000 cases from last September — when cash bail was eliminated in Illinois — until early this month. She called for an independent analysis of what she described as a “disconcerting” trend.
We knew it was bad. We had no idea it was this bad. But then again, the people running Illinois have a vested interest in burying their public policy failures.
WELL DUHHHH!!! My guess is that the “lawmakers” and the idiot Gubnor that signed it into “law” expected this outcome and really don’t “give a damn”! DemocRAT constituents are the criminals and they only care about law abiding citizens when it is time for their votes, or on “tax day”!!
Wonder how Champaign County “stacks up” to the idiotic law.