More than 90 charged with murder out on ankle bracelets
There’s a list that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and top law enforcement officials in Cook County keep at their fingertips — the real-time numbers of defendants awaiting adjudication of their cases while out on electronic monitoring.
Electronic monitoring allows the chief judge of Cook County and the Cook County sheriff ’s office to monitor the whereabouts of defendants through a GPS-style tracking device attached to the ankle. But as the number of defendants on the system has ballooned, and as the charges filed against them have grown more questionable, Sheriff Tom Dart has been sounding alarms.
“There’s a population on home monitoring that was never meant to be on it, including 92 or 93 who are charged with murder,” he told us. “I’ve been pleading with judges. These are violent people who are a danger to the community. We can’t keep doing this.”
Defendants on the electronic monitoring system as of May 17 include:
94 individuals charged with murder. Four years ago, that number was 31.
261 individuals charged as armed habitual criminals — meaning, at least two prior felony convictions. Four years ago, that number was 15.
534 individuals charged as felons in possession of a weapon. Four years ago, that number was 89.
569 individuals charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Four years ago, that number was 182.
33 individuals charged with vehicular hijacking. Four years ago, that number was six.
53 individuals charged with domestic battery. Four years ago, that number was 13.
The charges on the list reflect the lead charge the person is facing. Use of electronic monitoring is approved in bond court by Cook County judges who weigh the public safety risk of those charged and their flight risk for returning back to court.
Chief Judge Timothy Evans, a supporter of criminal justice reform measures that boost and protect the rights of defendants, says while murder charges, for example, are serious, at least one study has shown the vast majority of those charged, even with violent crimes, are not charged with another crime while awaiting the resolution of their cases on pretrial release.
“Even after a person is accused of a crime, in the U.S. legal system, under our Constitution, every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Evans wrote to us in a statement. “While a case is pending, under the law, judges must impose the least restrictive pretrial conditions possible that ensure the defendant’s return to court and protect public safety. Jail is the most restrictive condition, depriving the accused of liberty, as well as access to jobs, education, family and the ability to aid in their defense.”
He attributed the recent increase in electronic monitoring cases in part to the need to empty the jail as much as possible during the coronavirus pandemic.
At what cost? There is no independent, central database that tracks offenders accurately who commit additional crimes while out on bracelet monitoring.
Defendants would end up back in the system only if they committed a crime and were charged — not if they committed a crime but were not apprehended. Chicago police Superintendent David Brown repeatedly has cited the program as “unsustainable” and dangerous for the law-abiding citizens and the children in the neighborhoods to which the defendants return while awaiting trial.
At least one study has shown a dramatic spike in gun-carrying in Chicago during the pandemic — and confirmed the links between it and violent crime. And a Tribune investigation in February 2020 revealed inconsistencies in data collection under Evans’ office. So what to believe?
We know electronic monitoring has become an overburdened system that was not designed for individuals charged with violent offenses. Dart’s office is trying to keep track of some 3,600 defendants, up considerably from just a year ago.
Yes, those charged with crimes have the right to the presumption of innocence. But the charges leveled against them are determined by police who do the arresting, and by prosecutors in State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s own office who are looking at the gathered evidence. It defies logic to say they pose no real risk to public and should be allowed to return to their communities in such large numbers, with little supervision.
The movement toward less detention and more release stood front and center earlier this year when the legislature passed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law. Buried in it is a new provision making it easier for those on electronic monitoring to be provided “with open movement spread out over no fewer than two days per week” in a looser, unclear standard of home confinement.
Cook County voters in November 2020 elected candidates, including Foxx, who are putting into practice a criminal justice belief system that tilts toward the rights of the accused. Lightfoot has supported that approach, generally, as has Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and even Dart.
But these numbers show the pendulum has swung too far. Thousands of defendants charged with violent crimes are out on a loose electronic monitoring system. For the safety of people in every community, it needs to be pulled back.