A suburban county’s sheriff says Illinois’ two-year-old cashless bail system has produced the alternative of what its backers promised, along with his jail inhabitants almost doubling for the reason that legislation took impact. However the improve, Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain stated, just isn’t as a result of violent offenders are being stored behind bars pending trial.
As an alternative, Hain says his jail is filling up with defendants who had been launched pretrial underneath the brand new guidelines however later landed again behind bars after skipping their courtroom dates and having warrants issued.
“Many of the uptick is attributable to folks merely not showing in courtroom underneath the brand new parameters and having failure-to-appear warrants issued for them,” the sheriff’s workplace stated this week in an announcement marking the legislation’s second anniversary.
Hain stated the legislation has erased years of labor his workplace and “judicial companions” put into decreasing incarceration. He pointed to packages that minimize Kane County’s common every day jail inhabitants from the “550s” in 2018 to an “all-time low of 229” on the finish of 2022. Recidivism throughout that interval fell from “virtually 49% to 18%.”
Now, two years into cashless bail, the jail’s inhabitants has swelled again to 401 inmates.
“Contemplating that every detainee prices our taxpayers a minimal of $75 per day, per particular person, this has a dramatic affect on our funds at a time when Kane County is already dealing with monetary considerations,” Hain stated. He added that the county has been compelled to rent extra correctional officers and pay to ship detainees to different counties which have room to deal with Kane County’s overflow.
Hain criticized lawmakers for enacting the system “with little-to-no session with sheriffs throughout the state who function their county’s jail.”
“Many legislators proceed to get their intent unsuitable simply by studying headlines and taking motion with out consulting people who do the job every day,” he stated.
Hain’s workplace additionally argued that one other central promise of the Pre-Trial Equity Act has did not materialize.
“The principle intent of the laws was to scale back jail populations and reduce wealth and racial disparity of these held in custody underneath the money bail system,” Hain’s workplace stated. “We’ve got not seen a discount in racial or demographic disparity underneath the brand new legislation, both.”
Knowledge from Prepare dinner County exhibits patterns much like these described by Hain. In June 2023, about three months earlier than cashless bail was carried out, the Prepare dinner County Jail inhabitants stood at 5,491. This week, it was 6,002, a rise of 9 p.c.
The demographics of Prepare dinner County’s jail inhabitants have barely moved throughout that point: males dropped barely from 94.4% of the jail to 93.3%; Black residents went from 74% to 69.5%; Latinos grew from 17% to twenty.3%; and Whites rose from 8% to eight.7%.
Right here is the complete assertion launched by the Kane County Sheriff’s Workplace:
PRE-TRIAL FAIRNESS ACT UPDATE ON THE IMPACT TO THE KANE COUNTY JAIL
St Charles – In September of 2023, the Pre-Trial Equity Act (in any other case known as the cashless bail system) was carried out in Illinois. The principle intent of the laws was to scale back jail populations and reduce wealth and racial disparity of these held in custody underneath the money bail system. This legislation was positioned into impact with little-to-no session with Sheriffs throughout the state who function their county’s jail.
The Kane County Sheriff’s Workplace had labored for 5 years at the moment to scale back the jail inhabitants, recidivism, and native crime by implementing a myriad of programming for vocational coaching, substance abuse therapy, and job placement. When Sheriff Ron Hain took workplace in 2018, the jail inhabitants was ranging within the 550’s per day. With the modern programming, cooperation with our State Lawyer’s Workplace, and understanding from our judicial companions; the jail inhabitants fell to an all-time low of 229 by the top of 2022 and recidivism was introduced down from virtually 49% to 18% throughout that very same time.
As of September 18th of 2025, underneath the Pre-Trial Equity Act, the Kane County Jail’s inhabitants has risen to 401. Many of the uptick is attributable to folks merely not showing in courtroom underneath the brand new parameters and having failure to look warrants issued for them. We’ve got not seen a discount in racial or demographic disparity underneath the brand new legislation, both.
Sheriff Hain stated, “Many legislators proceed to get their intent unsuitable simply by studying headlines and taking motion with out consulting people who do the job every day. Contemplating that every detainee prices our taxpayers a minimal of $75 per day, per particular person, this has a dramatic affect on our funds at a time when Kane County is already dealing with monetary considerations. We’ve got additionally needed to rent many new officers and ship detainees off to different county jails simply to offset the speedy improve in jail inhabitants, rising our bills even additional.”
The Kane County Sheriff’s Workplace presents this info to maintain our public knowledgeable of our operations, funds considerations, and the necessity for elevated collaboration to impact correct laws for the betterment of our communities.
