Working for Illinois Caucus

Last month, the Illinois legislature strengthened its commitment to pretrial justice by passing the Pretrial Success Act as part of the state’s budget.

The program will dramatically increase access to voluntary community-based services for people caught up in the criminal legal system. This passage comes nine months after Illinois implemented the Pretrial Fairness Act, making us the first state in the nation to eliminate money bond.

The Pretrial Success Act allocates state funding to community organizations for providing essential services like mental health and substance use disorder treatment. It also provides funding for child care and transportation to help people with court appearances.

In January 2025, the state will pilot the program with an initial $3.5 million investment in five communities. The program will be fully implemented across the state beginning in July 2025. By increasing access to essential services, we can increase the chances of people getting the help they need and successfully exiting the criminal legal system.

The reforms Illinois has made to its pretrial legal system are historic not just for our state, but for the entire nation. No other state has demonstrated such intentionality to reforming pretrial practices. With the Pretrial Fairness and Pretrial Success Acts, we have shown the country that our commitment to pretrial justice is not a fleeting fad, but a deeply held value.

Not only will we fight to end the policies that have harmed communities over generations, but we’re committed to pretrial justice and community safety for the long haul.

Changing a broken system is not just about changing antiquated laws. It is also about replacing them with solutions proven to help our most vulnerable community members and improve community safety.

Before Illinois ended money bond, opponents tried to scare us with fear tactics, claiming that the Pretrial Fairness Act would lead to an unprecedented crime wave. They were wrong.

We have seen smooth and successful implementation of the law throughout the state. Thanks to the Pretrial Fairness Act, people are no longer being jailed simply because they lack the means to buy their freedom.

People are able to keep their jobs, housing, and positive family and social connections while awaiting trial in the community. The Pretrial Fairness Act was an important first step in ensuring our legal system prioritizes safety and justice – not access to money.

But ending a wealth-based detention system doesn’t do anything to prevent people from being arrested, and it’s undeniable that many people who encounter the criminal legal system need help. It is usually circumstance, not a desire to commit a crime, that leads people into the system in the first place.

Many trapped in our legal system are dealing with issues like joblessness, homelessness, untreated substance use disorders, and mental health issues. Often, they are trauma survivors themselves who have never received adequate treatment or even been given access.

It shouldn’t be difficult to recognize that the woman accused of stealing baby formula is too poor to afford basic necessities and needs a job, housing, and childcare, or that the Marine veteran who is repeatedly arrested for possessing small amounts of drugs would likely benefit from behavioral health care and substance use disorder treatment.

By passing the Pretrial Success Act, the legislature took the next important step in our fight for pretrial justice. Such investments are critical in supporting communities and preventing crime from occurring. If we care about public safety as much as we say we do, we must work to prevent our most vulnerable community members from getting stuck in the quicksand that is the criminal legal system.

We can only do that by addressing the root causes of crime and providing targeted support that meets people’s needs. The Pretrial Success Act will begin to provide communities with the necessary resources to do so.

Investing in community-based resources is the only way to get people the help that they need. Our experience and expanding understanding of public health issues have taught us that criminalizing mental health and drug addiction is not effective.

Care and treatment are best accessed as voluntary resources in communities, not in cages, and treatment plans should be developed by individuals and their clinicians, not by courts. Meaningful mental health care can’t happen in a jail cell.

For too long, we’ve disinvested in communities and drained them of resources. Thanks to the end of money bond, communities that disproportionately suffered at the hands of an overly punitive system are now saving millions of dollars.

But we must continue to invest in them, give them the resources to heal from institutionalized harms, and ensure that the criminal legal system ceases to operate like a revolving door.

Our historic overreliance on incarceration has not made us any safer. I’m proud that Illinois is investing in solutions that work.

Maurice West is the state representative for the 67th District of Illinois, which includes portions of Rockford, Loves Park, and Cherry Valley.