Illinois
Illinois SAFE-T Act: New law is a ‘get out of jail free card,’ former prosecutor says
Unpacking the SAFE-T Act: How does it change who might be detained following arrest?
Former Prepare dinner County prosecutor explains totally different eventualities by which people might be let go following an arrest underneath the SAFE-T Act.
CHICAGO – The SAFE-T Act is a 700-page invoice that reforms Illinois’ legal justice system in some ways, together with rising police oversight and supporting crime victims.
The controversy, nonetheless, has targeted on the elimination of money bail, and a former Prepare dinner County prosecutor tells FOX 32 Chicago he is involved about one other side.
“It is the way it severely limits a decide’s discretion in who a decide can maintain, even when that particular person is clearly a hazard to the neighborhood. And that is the scary proposition about this,” mentioned Dank Kirk, a former high-ranking prosecutor on the Prepare dinner County State’s Lawyer Workplace.
SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 32 CHICAGO ON YOUTUBE
Kirk says there is a lengthy listing of felonies the place a suspect could not be detained earlier than trial, beginning on January 1.
FOX 32 requested him to interrupt down particular crimes beginning with a kidnapping.
Unpacking the SAFE-T Act: Former Prepare dinner County prosecutor explains modifications to return
Former Prepare dinner County prosecutor Dan Kirk explains how the SAFE-T Act rewrites the legal justice system in Illinois and says based mostly on how the invoice is presently written, it is a “blueprint for catastrophe for public security.”
“Until the state asks that the particular person be detained, and the state can show that the particular person has a selected intention to flee the jurisdiction, that particular person can’t be detained in jail previous to trial,” Kirk mentioned.
He says it is the identical for a lethal aggravated DUI, and a housebreaking the place the suspect has an extended file.
In that case, Kirk described the SAFE-T Act as a “get out of jail free card.”
He additionally says holding somebody for an alleged hate crime or felony menace to a college all hinge on proving the suspect is a flight danger.
“What number of occasions are you going to have a defendant that has an airline ticket in hand or says to the decide I plan on leaving? That is merely not going to occur,” mentioned Kirk.
Pritzker, Bailey square-off over SAFE-T Act in first debate
Gov. JB Pritzker and his Republican challenger state Senator Darren Bailey clashed on a variety of points Thursday evening of their first televised debate, together with the SAFE-T Act.
Governor JB Pritzker has mentioned there could possibly be tweaks to the invoice.
One Democratic State Senator launched a invoice to make clear some language, permitting a decide to detain a suspect in the event that they pose a security menace to any particular person or the neighborhood.
You possibly can count on debate on this within the state legislature beginning subsequent month.