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CHICAGO (WLS) — Every courthouse in the state of Illinois has operated without cash bail for almost two years.
Researchers at Loyola University’s Criminal Justice and Criminology Department have found it to be a system that has run smoothly with no increases in crime.
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“People who have money, who may be dangerous, can’t just buy their way out, and poor people who aren’t dangerous don’t languish in jail with the inability to be released,” said Loyola University Loyola Center for Criminal Justice Co-Chair Professor David Olson.
Olson says the likelihood of someone committing a violent crime after being released before trial is very low. He says some prosecutors who were hesitant about a cashless bail system before it was enacted have now used it to their advantage to make sure violent criminals are detained.
“I think many of them do recognize the value of being able to detain someone who poses a danger and know that they can’t post money,” Olson said.
Falsely claiming people charged with murder are released, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to do away with cashless bail.
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“We are ending it, but we are starting by ending it in D.C. and that we have the right to do through federalization,” Trump said.
But legal experts say the president does not have the legal right to end cashless bail in the states or local jurisdictions.
“It is the prerogative of states and of municipalities and of very local government to decide how they are going to operate their criminal justice system,” said Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Professor Alexa Van Brunt.
Van Brunt says the law is quite clear, and the courts will not side with president. But he has threatened to withhold federal funding for jurisdictions that do not comply.
“How these lawsuits will turn out is a little unclear on the federal funding question,” Van Brunt said.
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