JAIL’S POPULATION PLUNGE
Once- O overcrowded Cook County complex holding smallest number of detainees in decades
More people are home for Christmas in Chicago this year than any time in decades — more people facing criminal charges, that is.
The Cook County Jail this week held some 5,900 detainees, the lowest in decades and down more than 1,500 in the last three months. This after years of efforts to reduce the population of the once- overcrowded jail complex at 26th Street and California Avenue.
The fall in inmates corresponds to the appointment of a new slate of judges to handle the daily docket in bond court, and a mandate from Chief Judge Timothy Evans to limit the use of cash bond.
“This is almost entirely the result of judges following the law, which says that you cannot use money as a way to hold defendants in jail,” said Cara Smith, director of policy for Sheriff TomDart.
“The people that are dangerous are detained, and the people that are not dangerous need to be supported, in the community, by pre- trial services.”
Critics of cash bond — requiring criminal defendants to put up money or property they lose if they then commit a crime or don’t show up for court — say poor defendants can languish in jail even on minor charges, while wealthy defendants go free while awaiting trial even on serious charges.
Starting Sept. 18, Evans mandated that defendants be granted bond amounts they can afford, unless deemed too dangerous to be released. Since then, use of cash bail has plunged.
According to Evans’ office, 60 percent of the 3,500 defendants who have come through the criminal court system since Sept. 18 received individual recognizance bonds. Cash bond was assigned in 20 percent of cases.
That’s a near- reversal from the six months before Evans’ order, when 25 percent of defendants got individual recognizance bonds. Including the 13 percent of defendants put on electronic home monitoring, nearly two- thirds of defendants leave jail the day of their bond hearing.
And defendants ordered to pay bond now are more likely to be able to afford to post bail. According to a study by the Sheriff’s Justice Institute, the median bond fell to $ 8,5000 in the first two months of the new policy, down from $ 75,000 during a similar span a year ago.
Evans’ office said 90 percent of defendants released on bond since his order took effect have reported for their next court dates, and 93 percent have not returned to court on crimes they are accused of committing while on bond.
Critics — including lawyers for two Cook County Jail inmates suing to challenge cash bail — have said Evans’ order simply restates state law requiring judges to set affordable bond amounts. And judges still frequently set bond higher than defendants say they can afford, noted Sharlyn Grace, a policy analyst for the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, which has sent observers to monitor bond hearings.
“Judges are supposed to set bond at the minimum amount necessary to ensure someone returns to court, and if they are too dangerous to be in the community, then you set no bond. Money does not equal safety,” Grace said.
Still, in the first quarter of 2017, the city was on pace to have more shootings and murders than in 2016. Then, by late summer, the tide turned, and killings now are down 15 percent.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the department worries that suspects caught with guns or arrested for shootings are making bond.
“CPD and the people of Chicago will not stand for a judicial system where individuals who engage in violence or recklessly carry and use illegal guns to harm our families are shown a revolving door,” Johnson said.