North Cook News

By voting for the Safe-T Act, state Rep. Mark Walker (D-Arlington Heights) endangered crime victims and police, "as well as threatening the safety of our communities," Jack Vrett, his Republican opponent, said in a statement.

"It restricts pre-trial detention which prosecutors use to protect the public and ensure a defendant appears in court for trial," Vrett told the West Cook News recently. "We need common sense crime laws, not radical legislation that endangers our community and gives offenders a pass. I join law enforcement professionals and residents in our communities to demand Mark Walker apologize for voting in favor of this irresponsible legislation, and demand that he calls on his allies in Springfield to repeal the dangerous SAFE-T Act before it is too late."

The SAFE-T Act enacts extensive reform impacting many areas of the criminal justice system—including pre-arrest diversion, policing, pretrial, sentencing and corrections; a report from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority said.

The most contested aspect of the SAFE-T Act is that it will eliminate cash bail in the state of Illinois. The bill noted that it will be “presumed that a defendant is entitled to release on personal recognizance” and may be detained thereafter if they violate certain conditions listed in 725 ILCS 5/110-2.     

During during a July 4 speech in Naperville, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow stated that there are 640 perpetrators in the Will County jail. On Jan. 1, all bonds will be extinguished, and the prisoners will be eligible for release. Sixty of those 640 are charged with murder, and many others have violent-offense charges.                   

“If that bill [the SAFE-T Act] goes into effect…police officers’ hands will be tied," Glasgow said. "What you see in Chicago, we’ll have here (Naperville). I won’t be able to hold anybody in jail longer than 90 days if they demand trial, and after at the 90th day, they get out, no matter what crime they committed, and then, if they don’t show up for court, I can’t get a warrant…they’re not going to come back to court…It’s going to be literally the end of days.”

State Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove) addressed some of the issues with having to find “continued detention” necessary following an initial detention hearing.

“The prosecutor has to identify, and the judge has to find that you pose a risk to a particular individual to continue to detain that person,” Curran said, as opposed to only having to prove a risk to the general public.             

Gov. JB Pritzker has defended HB3653, the SAFE-T Act; The Center Square recently reported. One of the reasons he gave for his stance on the issue was that the bill would protect criminals who do not have the financial resources that "drug-dealers" have and keep them from having to sit in jail for months.