Saline County officials fear elimination of cash bail

SALINE COUNTY - A new Illinois law scheduled to go into effect in 2023 may have a negative impact on Saline County's finances, not to mention crime rates, county officials say.

When Illinois legislators passed the Pretrial Fairness Act in the state's lame-duck legislative session, the state became the first in the nation to abolish cash bail. The bill awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signature.

The measure will eliminate cash bail - thought to discriminate against poor people who cannot raise the money to get out of jail - in favor of a series of criteria that will be used to determine who should stay in jail as they await trial, and who is a good risk to release.

Saline County officials are worried that once they are out of the street, arrestees will commit additional crimes. Moreover, it will have a financial effect, they believe, as Saline County earns a considerable amount of money by housing out-of-county arrestees.

Wes Sherrod, a Saline County board member, said the financially strapped county relies on income from housing jail inmates who are out-of-county.

"My concern is, if people can bond out without paying cash bail, then there will be no reason they can be held in our jail. That means we can't charge those counties," Sherrod said. "A substantial portion of our budget has been balanced partly from the money we make housing out-of-county inmates."

Saline County Sheriff James "Whipper" Johnson said currently an out-of-county arrestee often will be housed in the Saline County jail at least until a bond hearing is held.

"Let's say a person is arrested on Friday for possession of meth," Whipper said. "That means it will be Monday before they could be released after a bond hearing," he said. "Or, if it was on a Monday, no bond hearings are scheduled until Wednesday."

Saline County contracts with several other local counties that do not have jail facilities, and charges for each day they hold an out-of-county inmate.

"Last year we made about $352,000 from housing out-of-county and federal inmates. I suspect a huge portion of that will go bye-bye when this goes into effect," Johnson said.

He said the jail likely will have to contract to house more federal inmates and out-of-state inmates to make up the anticipated shortfall.

Besides the financial impact on Saline County, though, Johnson said he's greatly concerned about the amount of crime that will occur.

"This law is designed so people can get free and back to doing what they were doing, but usually what they were doing was committing crimes, which is why they were arrested," Johnson said. "I don't think too many people who would be arrested and then immediately released are going to see the error of their ways."