Recently, Cook County’s new state’s attorney, Eileen O’Neil Burke, issued a policy instructing assistant state’s attorneys to object anytime a judge orders an individual to be released on electronic monitoring when the state’s attorney originally requested pretrial detention. Blanket policies such as this one fail to promote public safety and undermine due process and the presumption of innocence by ignoring judges’ decisions and mitigating information provided by defense attorneys.

The Pretrial Fairness Act, which took effect in September 2023 and ended the use of money bond in Illinois, recognizes the foundational principle that every person is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. Under Illinois’ previous money bond system, judges made pretrial release and detention decisions in just a few minutes. Thus, judges had limited information about the allegations and how incarceration would impact the charged individual and their loved ones.

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