St. Clair County sets 1st hearings to decide whether defendants stay in jail before trial

The first detention hearings for Illinois residents charged with a crime in St. Clair and Madison counties under a new system of holding defendants are scheduled for Tuesday.

On Monday, Illinois became the first state to entirely end the “cash bail” system of holding people in jail before their trial.

Defendants no longer get a cash bail amount set after they have been arrested.

Instead, a detention hearing will be conducted if prosecutors want the person held in jail before their trial, and a judge will then decide whether a person should remain in custody.

Three detention hearings are scheduled in St. Clair County and one is scheduled in Madison County on Tuesday. No hearings were scheduled on Monday.

St. Clair County Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson said the detention hearings scheduled for Tuesday in St. Clair County are for persons who hadn’t been held in the county jail under the previous cash bail system.

The new system is part of legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and approved by Democratic lawmakers, who faced sharp opposition from Republicans. In June, the state Supreme Court ruled the system was constitutional.

Supporters say it wasn’t fair for someone to be held in jail for lower offenses before their trial just because they could not afford to pay their cash bail amount.

Opponents such as the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police say the elimination of cash bail allows “dangerous criminals back on the street, instead of keeping them in jail or forcing them to post cash bail as they await trial.”

In the new detention hearing process, the defendant “has the right to be represented by counsel, and if he or she is indigent, to have counsel appointed for him or her. The defendant shall have the opportunity to testify, to present witnesses on his or her own behalf, and to cross-examine any witnesses that are called by the State,” according to a statement by the Illinois Supreme Court Pretrial Implementation Task Force.

Prosecutors will need to prove by “clear and convincing evidence” that the defendant “poses a real and present threat to the safety of a person or the community.” If the prosecutors allege the person is a flight risk, they have to prove “no condition or combination of conditions can mitigate the defendant’s high likelihood of willful flight,” from prosecution, the task force statement said.

If a judge decides to detain a defendant, he or she must issue a written order “summarizing why less restrictive conditions would not avoid a real and present threat to the safety of any person or persons or the community, based on the specific articulable facts of the case, or prevent the defendant’s willful flight from prosecution.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 8:20 PM.