Central Illinois sheriffs look back on two years without cash bail

CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — Thursday marked two years since the end of cash bail in Illinois following the state Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the SAFE-T Act. 

The rule means people arrested can no longer post a cash bond to be released before their trial. Instead, a judge decides if the person poses a risk to the community to be detained or released before their first court appearance.

“It’s more realistically weighing the risk of, ‘Will you come back to court?’” Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman said. “Sometimes, people were accused of pretty bad crimes but they had access to a lot of money, so they were able to get out of jail.”

Heuerman was in favor of some aspects of the law when it went into effect in 2023. He added since then, his jail has seen drastically fewer inmates. 

“There is no question we have significantly fewer inmates in custody today than we did two years ago,” Heuerman said.

He said the decrease may just be because crime was higher across the country in 2023. But, it’s something other sheriffs are experiencing too. One of them is Coles County Sheriff Kent Martin. Martin said his jail averaged 95 people everyday before cash bail ended.

“In October of 23, when that went into effect, that number dropped down into the 40’s,” Martin said.

But now, the number is starting to rise again.

“It seems to be that we have a higher number of inmates who have committed an offense when they’re out on pre-trial release,” Martin said.

He said that’s exactly why he was against the act two years ago. Now, his office is running into another issue with the loss of cash bail.

“That money used to get forwarded applied to fines and costs and that’s not happening now so it’s also impacting our revenue streams,” Martin said.