Massive Illinois Police Reform Bill Ends Cash Bail, Limits Deadly Force, Mandates Body Cameras, and Makes It Easier To Dump Crooked Cops
Unfortunately, qualified immunity remains intact.
Unfortunately, qualified immunity remains intact.
Cash bail is as unjust as it is arbitrary.
Tax hikes? Drug wars? Racial Preferences? Not today.
The ex-cop charged with killing George Floyd should be allowed to await his trial in safety. That should be the standard for everybody.
A proposed bipartisan change in pretrial detention rules could free thousands annually.
Bail bond companies fight to protect their industry, while some civil rights groups worry the reforms won't actually reduce pretrial detentions.
The NYPD is still blaming jail releases, but the data simply doesn’t back that claim up.
Judge Anne Marie Coyle has rejected every emergency attempt to reduce prison populations.
New emergency rules attempt to slow down justice system to keep people apart.
If only everybody weren’t stuck in their homes.
Judges would be given additional leeway to order pretrial detentions.
Jail officials urge more and faster releases as the virus spreads between staff and inmates.
Did Cook County overdo it and let too many dangerous defendants free?
ACLU argues the practice violates the Eighth Amendment.
Police and prosecutors want to maintain a system that punishes poor people before they’re ever convicted.
Jewish criminal justice groups are not having it.
Less dependence on bail and stronger requirements for evidence sharing will help defendants fight charges.
Reformers worry that district attorneys will subvert new rules, but prosecutors worry about those who refuse to show up for court.
Two federal court rulings cite a significant conflict of interest.
People charged—but not convicted—of crimes often have to wait weeks to see a judge if they’re too poor to pay for their freedom.
Magistrates don’t care whether defendants can pay, leaving the indigent stuck in jail before they’re ever convicted.
New Jersey is detaining almost half as many people pretrial, and the state is not seeing a big crime wave.
Justices leave intact a ruling allowing detention for 48 hours of those who cannot immediately pay for their release.
Better evidence sharing and a dramatic drop in cash bail demands will help defendants challenge charges.
Conservative majority declines to consider constitutional concerns of holding noncitizens without hearings.
Magistrates are supposed to consider the financial concerns of people who come before them. Instead they're tossing them behind bars.
Very high cash demands disrupt defendants' lives without improving public safety.
Defendants aren't being ordered to pay for their freedom, and they're still coming back for court appearances.
Class action claim contends 85 percent of people jailed before trial simply cannot afford to pay and aren't offered alternatives.
It has been nearly four years since the young man passed away.
Lawsuits playing out for three years spotlight how poor people end up trapped in jail even before being convicted.
Industry representatives succeed in forcing a referendum on reforms passed by lawmakers.
2018 was a mixed bag, but that means there was still a lot of good news.
Taxpayers shell out big time to keep poor folks who haven't even been convicted of crimes behind bars.
She had a history of mental illness, and was arrested for misdemeanor trespassing in July.
Money is no longer needed to get out of jail. This hasn't resulted in danger to the community.
How an unscientific field test and the bail system stripped a Georgia grandmother of justice.
Organization helps poor people cover costs to get out of jail before their trials. Why is this a problem?
Some people don't belong behind bars. This celebrity-launched criminal justice reform group wants to free them.
A law signed in August will eliminate cash bail entirely in the Golden State, and quite a few jobs in the process.
The Arizona Supreme Court got it right: categorical denials of bail to persons charged with sexual assault violates the Constitution.
Justice Anthony Kennedy's bogus 2002 claim figures prominently in defenses of an Arizona bail ban.
My co-authored amicus brief urges the Supreme Court to review the issue of whether Arizona can deny bail to accused sex offenders where "proof" of sexual assault "is evident or the presumption great."
As more reforms take hold, expect more challenges-especially if states end up detaining more people.
The number of people being detained prior to trial has tripled over the course of three decades.
Headlines like this are appallingly common.
First and Last ignores the absurdity that many of its subjects are imprisoned, not to mention Gwinnett County Jail's own troubled record.
The Golden State has a year to implement a new pretrial system, and there's a fear it could lead to more detentions.