Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed a police-reform bill into law that he says will transform the criminal justice system in Illinois, but which opponents say will leave communities and crime victims vulnerable and officers without much recourse in high-pressure situations.
House Bill 3653 has a number of different provisions that will affect the entire police and court system in the state. It will require the elimination of cash bail by January 2023, which would be replaced by a system of pretrial release criteria. It also mandates that all police officers wear body cameras in Illinois, requires new training standards for officers and brings in a new standard by which officers can be removed for misconduct.
Pritkzer says the new law will help to eliminate historical problems faced by certain groups of people in the state’s criminal justice system.
“This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state and our nation, and brings us closer to true safety, true fairness and true justice,” he said during a signing ceremony at Chicago State University Monday.
Opponents of the legislation have said it will result in a less safe Illinois and have criticized the process behind its development as lacking in transparency without proper input from Republican lawmakers and the public at large.
Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy has been the most vocal critic locally of the new law. She says ending cash bail provisions will harm crime victims again as it would be more likely for offenders to be released rather than kept in jail.
“They will be re-victimized over and over and over again, and the cycle of violence that they were so strongly able to finally fight against will continue to go on in their homes,” she said during a virtual town-hall meeting earlier this month.
The bill was introduced early in a five-day lame duck session last month, and the final version of the bill was introduced after midnight on the final day of the lame-duck session, when it received just enough votes to pass both chambers with less-than-an-hour of floor debate.
