Foxx: Low- risk defendants should go free before trial
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on Monday announced that her office will urge judges to let lowrisk defendants go free while they are awaiting trial.
Foxx, who campaigned on a platform of reforming the county’s criminal justice system that was stacked against the poor, said in a statement that prosecutors will weigh in at bond hearings to call for “I- bond” for nonviolent defendants who are unlikely to commit crimes while free, or fail to return to court.
When a judge sets an Ibond, a defendant is released and has to pay the dollar amount only if he or she misses court dates.
“Routinely detaining people accused of low- level offenses who have not yet been convicted of anything, simply because they are poor, is not only unjust — it undermines the public’s confidence in the fairness of the system,” Foxx wrote.
Even small amounts of cash needed to pay a “Dbond,” short for deposit bond, can leave poor defendants locked up for weeks or months, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has said.
The announcement comes after Gov. Bruce Rauner last weekend signed into law legislation, backed by Foxx, intended to steer judges to set less- restrictive forms of bond.
And if the first official day of the policy is any indication, it appeared that it may not impact that many defendants.
Several people on the docket in Cook County Central Bond Court on Monday were granted I- bonds or assigned electronic monitor bracelets while on house arrest, but none of those recent arrestees apparently had records clean enough or charges light enough for the assistant state’s attorneys to vouch for them.