Madison County state’s attorney, sheriff sue Illinois leaders over law ending cash bail
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine and Sheriff John Lakin have filed a lawsuit arguing the law ending the state’s cash bail system next year is unconstitutional and should be repealed.
The law is known as the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, or SAFE-T Act. Lawmakers approved it in a January 2021 lame duck session.
It changes the rules for detaining someone charged with a crime in a county jail before their trial. Under the current system in Illinois, people can be released from jail if they can pay an amount of money set by a judge known as a bail bond.
The intent of the SAFE-T Act is to detain people accused of crimes only if they are considered a danger to others or a flight risk. Supporters of the law note that, with a cash bail system, people could be unnecessarily jailed because they can’t afford to pay their bond.
But the Madison County lawsuit argues the law is unconstitutionally vague, among other issues.
It lists the following defendants:
Governor J.B. Pritzker
Attorney General Kwame Raoul
House Speaker Chris Welch
Senate President Don Harmon
“This lawsuit gives our court system an opportunity to properly vet this law where our political branches have failed, and protect the citizens of Madison County from the disaster that is the SAFE-T Act as it is currently written,” Lakin stated in a news release announcing the lawsuit.
Haine has been raising concerns about language in the law he sees as contradictory since 2021. In the past two weeks, he and the governor have sparred over their interpretations of the law in open letters, with Haine arguing it is too restrictive on judges’ ability to detain people charged with crimes.
Haine and Lakin filed their complaint Wednesday in Madison County Circuit Court, but Haine said in a news release that his office will ask for it to be consolidated with similar lawsuits filed in other counties.
The other counties where state’s attorneys have filed suit over the SAFE-T Act include Jersey, Kankakee, Will, Grundy, McHenry, White, Kendall, Vermilion and Brown.
The Madison County complaint is seeking a preliminary injunction that would prohibit implementation of the SAFE-T Act’s changes while the lawsuit is pending.
“We are being asked to prepare for a law that upends our entire justice system and governs our ability to bring criminals to justice but are given no clarity about what the rules will be on January 1,” Haine stated this week. “We regret it has come to this, but this lawsuit will give us a final chance to prevent the SAFE-T Act from going into effect as currently written.”
Lawmakers have suggested they will make changes to the law. They next return to Springfield for November’s veto session.
Haine’s and Lakin’s lawsuit also argues legislators passed the SAFE-T Act in an unconstitutional manner, and that the law doesn’t align with Illinois Constitution, which suggests bail — the conditions of release before trial — has a monetary component.
This story was originally published October 6, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
