Illinois Was Correct, and Wisconsin Should End Cash Bail
On Monday, August 12th the president of our country, Donald Trump announced that he would end Chicago’s no cash bail policy. There are so many angles to take on why this is both dumb and wrong. I think a good place to start is to say that it is actually a policy of the state of Illinois, and didn’t go through local Chicago government in any way. However Chicago is a scary boogyman for the right wing, and is one that Trump specifically hates so naturally he named it. Furthermore, for Trump to target a specific states policy would certainly strain his executive authority, and we should also talk about that.
The primary take away should be that it is good that Illinois passed the SAFET Act, and Wisconsin should do the same thing. That is the message today, but of course Donald Trump is the president, so we need to wade through a swamp of bullshit first. It also may be helpful to talk to people who don’t know what cash bail is in the first place, and I guess we should start there.
Cash Bail - A Problem
When a person is arrested they can get hauled off to jail. A person doesn’t even have to have done anything, a cop just has to think that they might have. Due process is in the news a lot lately thanks to ICE, but the drawn out period in which a person is detained pretrial is already a violation of the principle. A person can be arrested, and then thrown in jail until the court gets around to declaring them not guilty. Defenders of the process claim that cash bail keeps communities safer by getting criminals off the street BEFORE they can be charged and ultimately removed from society.
We know however, that cash bail - like the rest of our criminal “justice” system as a whole *ahem* - does not make us safer. We know that it targets poor people, and specifically those who are latino and black. We do not have evidence that people who are detained then turn around and reoffend. Cash bail is a burden on the legal system, and clogs community jails with over 400,000 people who have not been convicted of a crime at all. Holding people in overcrowded and deadly jails pretrial adds coercive pressure to forgo trial and plead guilty, often to stacked charges or over-charging prosecutors. This then contributes to more and longer prison sentences, then crowded, deadly prison facilities.
Bail was initially devised to ensure that people who were arrested would not skip town. It was not until the Bail Reform Act of 1984 that judges would be permitted to use their powers to detain people that they believed would be “more dangerous” if not locked up. This is the reason why we have stories like New York City’s Kalief Browder. A sixteen year old who was arrested under suspicion of stealing a backpack, who then languished in Rikers Island for 3 years before charges were dropped. He died by suicide later in life.
Chicago - All Things Know, All Things Know
I don’t think that there is a place that is more misunderstood than Chicago. The media loves to tell sensational stories about how bad crime is there, and how you will probably get murdered if you go there. The city itself is something of a signifier for right wing talking points about how the left ruins cities (despite most of the problems with big cities being the result of anything but leftist policies.) It is just another day for Trump to misrepresent his political opposition, and specifically to blame it on Chicago.
In reality the policy itself reflects the will of the entire state of Illinois, not just the big city. This means that people in rural areas also benefit from not being detained before their trial. Like other good policies, ending cash bail should be an eye opener for people in broader communities. Good things can happen, and are not just scary stories on the news.
The Authoritarian Creep - Illinois Won Something Good, Why is Wyoming Able to Take It Away?
Man whatever happened to state’s mother fuckin rights anyway? The president of the United States of America is whipping up his base, (most of whom do not live in Illinois) to support his authoritarian agenda, except why should someone in Wyoming have a say in Illinois law? Once again it is important to state that cash bail does not stop crime from happening. What it does do is make a few rich people way richer.
While it is nonsense that Trump’s popularity in Utah, Indiana, or whatever other garbage state gives him power to undermine the will of the people who live in Illinois. Beyond that there is another group of people that have influenced Trump’s comments, that group of people are lobbyists for the billion dollar industry of cash bail bondsmen. There is an entire business full of people who lost money when Illinois ended cash bail, and those people have certainly bought influence all over the country.
There are so many bad laws that hurt people. They are unpopular, so then they should be so easy to undo, right? The monied interests always make it more difficult than it should be, and are never content to just take a loss. They work around the clock to reinforce the mechanics of our government to reject progress like the kids in DARE commercials saying no to drugs.
We Defend Ending Cash Bail by Expanding an End to Cash Bail
Ending cash bail is good policy, and beyond the financial incentives of stocking Illinois prisons, the bail bondsmen industry, or just the regular racism that supports prison-likers ideology, there is one huge reason why Trump is singling out this particular law. The Right can not allow a state to pass a policy like this, and to then become a success story. It is the same issue as the publicly owned grocery store that the right is freaking out about in NYC. If policies from the left jump through all of the arbitrary hoops that our country has intentionally constructed to uphold business interests, and then go on to be popular, all of the sudden the people in Wyoming might also want cheaper groceries, (or to get rid of cash bail, to have student loans forgiven, and public transportation too.)
We fight bad ideas with good ideas, and it should not be forgotten that Illinois Democrats didn’t come to this decision on their own, it was the work of organizers including The People’s Lobby that pushed for reform. This need to play ball with Republicans is the fatal flaw of Tony Evers, Barack Obama, and the Dem establishment of the last 60 years. We don’t need to shy away from cash bail, we loudly proclaim that it is a good policy. We don’t look for compromise to say “well what about some cash bail, but only if they have been really naughty.” Because breaking up our good ideas into smaller chunks ALWAYS plays into the Right’s agenda
To Wisconsin law makers: I know that this is a big task but it is worth the fight. We needed legislation to fight this practice yesterday, and though I understand that ultimately Wisconsin would need a constitutional amendment to pass the abolition of cash bail, it can be done.
Maybe we will have to wait for the fabled Democratic Trifecta, but in that case we need to have these intentions stated now.
If you are looking for more information on Wisconsin’s relationship with cash bail, The Bail Project is a great place to start. This is their article in response to the constitutional amendment to expand judges authority to set cash bail back in Spring 2023.
