The end of cash bail that took effect five months ago in Illinois is contributing to a rise in crime rates in Springfield and the rest of Sangamon County, law enforcement officials say.
It may not be conclusive proof, but Springfield Police Chief Kenneth Scarlette pointed to a 21.5% increase in reports of serious crimes in the city as another indication that people being released rather than detained – especially repeat offenders – are committing more crimes while they await trial.
Serious crimes are categorized as "Group A" offenses and can range from murder and aggravated assault to retail theft, burglary and drug crimes.
The increase covered the last four months of 2023 and was computed based on the same period in 2022. The Pretrial Fairness Act, the part of a broader criminal-justice reform law called the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, took effect on Sept. 18, 2023.
The increase seen in late 2023 contrasted with the 0.69% drop in the number of Group A offenses reported in Springfield the first eight months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
Scarlette said the increase was "one of the unintended consequences" of the SAFE-T Act and evidence that the act, which has been tweaked by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly several times since it was first passed in January 2021, needs to be amended again to give judges more leeway so more people can be kept in jail.
"My thing right now is that career criminals are walking out the door of the county jail without any immediate consequences as to their actions and feel emboldened and empowered to repeat the process," Scarlette said.
"That's the part that concerns me – not the individuals who may have made a mistake one time and are released from jail. Arrests and jail experience can be a learning opportunity, and oftentimes people learn from their mistakes and move on, and I can appreciate that.
"It's the people who are career criminals, repeat offenders, that we see routinely driving these numbers up. One person responsible for multiple retail thefts – that's a problem. That person should be held in a facility where they can no longer go out and prey upon the businesses of Springfield."
The data, which Scarlette acknowledges was a relatively small sample, reflected a trend reported by some other police agencies in Illinois but not others. It is also not reflected in statewide totals reviewed by Illinois Times.
The data were part of crime statistics that the department, like other police agencies nationwide, reports monthly to the FBI as part of the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
Crime data are only starting to be collected and analyzed since the Pretrial Fairness Act made Illinois the first state in the nation to completely eliminate cash bail.
The act created a system in which people who are arrested and charged with crimes are evaluated by state's attorneys and judges for risks of reoffending and their likelihood of returning to court, and then either held in jail or released while their cases proceed.
Both opponents and supporters of the act said it will take at least a year, and perhaps years, before accurate conclusions can be drawn.
"A lot of it is so nebulous now," said Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Sheriffs' Association.
David Olson, professor of criminal justice at Loyola University Chicago, said the FBI data are unaudited and can reflect variations in the quality of reporting by police departments. The data also don't indicate whether the elimination of cash bail has resulted in certain defendants being released pretrial any earlier than they would have under the previous bail system.
Sarah Staudt, a Chicago-based lawyer who is part of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice – a group that supported elimination of cash bail – said it’s unlikely that people arrested and then released rather than being detained are affecting crime rates.
The number of people being released in Illinois is relatively small compared with any community’s total population, and rates of defendants offending while free and awaiting trial are traditionally low, she said.
“When crime rates go up and down, it’s related to a lot of different factors,” Staudt said. “There aren’t easy answers.”
But Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, a Republican and fervent critic of the elimination of cash bail, said he has no doubt there are "more criminals on the street" committing crimes because of the Pretrial Fairness Act.
The Sangamon County Jail population, which was 308 inmates on Sept. 17, was down by 95 people, or 31%, on Dec. 31, and that reduction has remained consistent since then, Campbell said. Reductions at various levels have been reported at county jails throughout the state.
Of the 1,147 arrests that the Springfield Police Department made between Sept. 18 and Dec. 31, 71 detentions were requested by State's Attorney John Milhiser. Judges granted 44 of them, or 62%.
A more reasonable number granted would be 90% to 100%, Scarlette said. The defendants recommended for detention by police and prosecutors are "the worst of the worst," he said.
Milhiser said 73% of the detentions he has requested from Sept. 18 to now have been granted, which includes people arrested by other law enforcement agencies in addition to SPD arrests. He declined to comment on judges' decisions but said the percentage is similar to the success of detention requests by prosecutors across Illinois.
"I think it's too early to tell the long-term effect of the SAFE-T Act," Milhiser, a Republican, said.
The Illinois State's Attorney's Association is considering pushing for legislation to give judges more discretion on detention decisions, Milhiser said.
"If there was more discretion given to judges, I feel public safety would benefit from that discretion," he said.
The Sangamon County Sheriff's Department, the primary policing agency in unincorporated parts of the county and in many municipalities outside Springfield, reported a 12.7% increase in Group A offenses in the last four months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022. The data reflected a 118% increase in burglaries during the period, with 72 in 2022 and 157 in 2023.
And in Springfield, the 21.5% increase in Group A offenses the last four months of 2023 included an 88% increase in burglaries, with 358 in the 2022 period and 676 in the 2023 period. Motor vehicle thefts were up 62%, with 154 in 2022 and 249 in 2023.
The Rockford Police Department reported a 6% increase in Group A offenses in late 2023 compared with a 4.5% drop in the first eight months. Peoria saw a 17.7% increase in the last four months of 2023 versus a 12% increase in the first eight months of 2023, and Decatur reported a 16% jump in the last four months of the year compared with a 4% drop the first eight months.
However, police agencies in the counties of McLean, DuPage, Kane, Morgan, Lake and Will reported trends either opposite or different from the trend seen in Sangamon County.
State totals for Group A offenses were up 5.34% in the last four months of 2023, but the totals for the first eight months of 2023 increased almost 17% from the same period in 2022.
Some of Springfield's increases in theft were the result of police encouraging retail establishments to report all thefts to police, and some of the increase in motor vehicle theft reports represented more juveniles committing crimes, Scarlette said.
But the chief said anecdotal evidence of the negative effects of the elimination of cash bail is unmistakable.
He pointed to cases involving Springfield residents Keyannya L. Simpson, 42, and Christian Halberstadt, 26.
Simpson has been arrested more than 60 times for offenses including larceny, assault, forgery and obstruction of justice and served time in Illinois and Tennessee prisons, Deputy Police Chief Sara Pickford said.
Simpson was arrested most recently for alleged retail theft and forgery. Police and the state's attorney requested she be detained because of her criminal history, but a judge released her and required she wear an ankle monitor.
Simpson was arrested Feb. 8 and detained in the county jail, where she remains, after she removed the device without authorization that morning.
Halberstadt, who served time in the Illinois Department of Corrections for robbery, burglary and aggravated battery of a police officer, was arrested by Springfield police and charged with burglarizing a car and possessing methamphetamine on Feb. 26.
But the alleged parole violation wasn't enough to get a judge to agree with a request to detain him in jail, Pickford said. Halberstadt was released and ordered to submit to electronic monitoring.
"What is going to stop him from continuing to commit crimes?" Pickford asked.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at 217-679-7810, [email protected] or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
