CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION
There is no evidence linking pretrial reform to crime ("Crime on the rise in Sangamon County," Feb. 29). But that didn't stop the Springfield Police Department from claiming that ending money bond has caused an increase in arrests for some charges in Springfield. Let's be clear: over the same period, some Illinois cities and counties have seen decreases in some types of crime and some have seen increases. There's simply no correlation.
Study after study shows that the instability caused by jailing leads to worse outcomes for people and communities. Just a few days in jail can increase the likelihood a person will be rearrested in the future. And children of people in jail experience far greater rates of abuse and poor school performance because the separation causes stress and instability. These effects ripple out and impact entire communities.
Our communities are safer now that pretrial release decisions are focused on safety and not the size of someone's bank account.
Susan Bramlet Lavin
Springfield
DON'T POLITICIZE CRIME
If the drastic increase in crime rates over the back half of 2023 was solely due to the SAFE-T Act, law enforcement would be able to point to countless (several hundred) cases of individuals being arrested, released, then re-arrested, correct? It seems as if the Springfield Police Department and Sangamon County Sheriff's Office are looking for a scapegoat or excuse for the increase in crime.
I recall the same groups criticizing the former mayor, who happened to be a Democrat, for crime while he was in office. Well, if they claimed crime was bad then, what does that make it now? Ironically, there was a change in administrations at the same time crime rates started to shoot the wrong way in Springfield. Either hold the same standards or stop politicizing crime as an excuse and take some accountability.
Arthur Dunkin
WHO'S TO BLAME?
Since the SAFE-T Act allows for pretrial detention, is it fair to say that the police chief is also criticizing the judgment of the state's attorneys and judges who make the recommendations and decisions regarding who is released and who is detained?
Jay Shan
Via Facebook/illinoistimes.com
UIS HAS FAILED NPR
It was 1977 and my father spotted a flyer on a bulletin board at Quincy College (now Quincy University), promoting work-study opportunities at WSSR, the public radio station at the nearly new Sangamon State University. Thanks to the mentorship of Rich Bradley – we lost him last year – encouragement by Steve Eckert (then at WCVS) and later Tom Kushak at WMAY, I had a news career of more than 22 years, some of it in Springfield and much of it in public radio.
What of Sangamon State and WSSR? Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University were elbowed out when University of Illinois grabbed SSU in 1995 and reduced most of the other state universities to local fiefdoms. University of Illinois at Springfield lost its unique mission in public affairs and then a governor dedicated to shaking things up led to an environment to gut state funding, particularly in higher education.
A temp holding the inflated title of chancellor set in motion what the current chancellor is continuing, as reported by Illinois Times on Feb. 29 ("NPR facing financial challenges), diminishing one of the only public services universally available from UIS. For many across central Illinois, the radio station is their only connection to the university.
What is called NPR Illinois is actually just (barely) WUIS with a repeating antenna in Pike County and a miniscule portion of the budget of the Springfield campus, much less the entire UI system. For WUIS to have missed a federal reporting deadline is a $50,000 loss it can ill afford.
The rest of the state's public radio stations, having lost faith in UIS, brought in Chicago's public station to operate the Statehouse bureau that had provided both additional income and a halo around WUIS. Notably that decision included WILL-AM-FM-TV, which is also owned by UI and hasn't been reported to be facing a cut in university support of the magnitude of that at WUIS.
I'm glad to have had the start I was given in Springfield and to have worked in what could be called peak local news reporting in markets across Illinois. I lament what has happened at a school that has not lived up to its vision and has been reduced to being little more than a generic branch campus of the state's flagship university.
Marc Magliari
Northbrook
