NW Illinois News

The Stephenson County Sheriff's Office will not be implementing the SAFE-T Act’s cashless bail provision after it was ruled unconstitutional earlier this week. 

The Stephenson County Sheriff's Office is also celebrating the effort it made together with many other county sheriffs and state's attorney's offices challenging the Act's constitutionality. 

“On Wednesday, December 28th, 2022, Thomas Cunnington, Circuit Judge - 21st Circuit, ruled that Pretrial Fairness Act provisions of the legislation commonly known as the SAFE-T Act are unconstitutional,” the Stephenson County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook. “Since Stephenson County is one of the 65 plaintiffs in the case, the Stephenson County Sheriff’s Office will remain status quo as it pertains to arrest and bond procedures. The ruling by Judge Cunnington is a victory for the rule of law and reverses an attempt by the state legislature to usurp the Constitution of the State of Illinois.” 

Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas W. Cunnington, of the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois, wrote in his decision that “The administration of the justice system is an inherent power of the courts upon which the legislature may not infringe and the setting of bail falls within that administrative power, the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat.” 

Many believe that the ruling was a forgone conclusion. Among them is criminal law professor Richard Kling who, according to Chicago Sun-Times, said “The arguments raised all had merit, they weren’t frivolous.” 

The SAFE-T Act will still take effect on Jan. 1 in the 37 counties not included in the lawsuit. In those counties, thousands of inmates who await trial on serious crimes would be released. But after Cunnington's ruling, the 65 counties involved in the lawsuit will not be subject to those provisions of the SAFE-T Act. The Act changed after a campaign communications blitz revealed several glaring errors in the law. No Republicans voted for the bill or the subsequent changes. When the SAFE-T Act is implemented in the surviving counties, those charged with the most heinous crimes—such as robbery, kidnapping, arson, second-degree murder, intimidation, aggravated battery, aggravated DUI, aggravated flight, drug-related homicide, and threatening a public official—will be freed, as Will County Gazette previously reported.