By: Matt Rosenberg
On an average day in 2016, Cook County had just 16 defendants out on ankle bracelets while awaiting trial for murder or attempted murder charges. As a result of more lenient bail procedures beginning in 2017, today that number has jumped to 114, or 7 times more. Cook County residents are at greater risk of being victimized by defendants on monitoring who should have been detained before trial. Already, electronic monitoring horror stories are too often reported in Cook County (see below). Now, the odds are growing that there will be more.
Worse, these risky practices may be coming to all of Illinois soon, thanks to the badly misnamed SAFE-T Act. That’s the sweeping criminal justice “reform” law jammed through by majority lawmakers in the 2021 lame duck session. Key provisions will dramatically reduce pretrial detention January 1, so count on many more defendants charged with violent crimes to be out on electronic monitoring throughout the state next year.
More murder, armed violence, firearms, and sex crime defendants out pretrial, on monitoring
Bail reform in Cook County under Chief Judge Timothy Evans has resulted in more defendants on electronic monitoring charged with major violent crimes, and fewer facing trial for burglary, theft, DUI, and drug offenses. For our analysis of changes in the Cook County electronic monitoring population we looked at the 15 most-monitored defendants, by type of pending criminal charge in 2022, and compared the 2016 and 2022 data reported recently by the sheriff’s office.
There’s quite a bit more to it than the seven-fold jump in monitored defendants charged with murder or attempted murder.
The number of monitored pretrial defendants charged with being a felon in possession of a gun was just 62 in 2016 but jumped to 378 in 2022. That’s a bump of 510 percent.
Monitored pretrial defendants facing charges of armed violence numbered 6 on an average day in 2016 versus 34 this year, up 467 percent. For sex crimes, it was just 45 on an average day in 2016 but 172 this year, 282 percent higher.
Defendants released to monitoring and facing trial for aggravated gun possession numbered 164 per average day in 2016, but 597 this year. That’s a jump of 264 percent.
At the same time, the Cook County 2016-2022 data show pretrial defendants out on bond and assigned to electronic monitoring have decreased for a number of other crimes. Those being monitored pretrial for burglary, felony theft, DUI, drug manufacturing or delivery, felony drug possession or driving on a revoked license, were all sharply down in percentage terms – 35 to 85 percent – from the year before bail reform, 2016, through the third quarter of this year.
Weakened monitoring rules are already leading to new criminal charges.
Meanwhile, the SAFE-T Act has loosened rules statewide for electronically monitored defendants. Some earned new criminal charges while on furloughs from monitoring. SAFE-T does much more, though. It ends cash bail January 1 and makes pretrial detention much more difficult.
As a result, if no major changes are made to the bill in the November 2022 veto session of the state legislature, Illinois’ 101 other counties will have to contend with a more and more dangerous and crime-prone population of pretrial defendants on electronic monitoring. Like Cook County already does.
The shift in the make-up of Cook County’s monitored population of pretrial defendants has been unfolding for several years and the warning signs have been clear. Newly-charged offenders on monitoring have too often been charged with fresh crimes before trial.
- A scofflaw EM defendant recently tried to steal a vehicle in Chicago that had been left running. The owner latched onto the roof and hung on a wild ride until the driver was seen fleeing while still wearing his ankle bracelet.
- A man at large on bond for three pending weapons charges and for escaping electronic monitoring, was finally taken into custody on a new weapons charge and put by a Cook County judge on…..electronic monitoring. Again. Of course he should have been home-bound on EM but – imagine this – was instead charged with fatally shooting a woman at a block party.
- A man with four prior felony convictions and a new charge for a shooting was out on bond and on electronic monitoring, and then was charged with killing a relative’s boyfriend.
- A woman out on bond for attempted murder of a police officer was charged with escaping from electronic monitoring last year – and then again last week. The ankle bracelet died this last time around so that’s not indicative of ill intent. But the question arises: how is she even out on bond to begin with, considering the charge?
- Then there was the EM defendant out on bond before trial in a felony weapons case who admitted to threatening a judge via Zoom chat during a hearing. He was charged with threatening a public official and finally held without bond.
- An alleged armed robber released to monitoring was apprehended seven miles from home. He told police he was trying to track down his dog. There were no added charges of escaping monitoring because in addition to two eight-hour furloughs weekly, SAFE-T now gives monitored defendants 48 hours to be out of compliance with movement restrictions. He was charged with felony criminal damage to property involving the police vehicle that took him into custody again.
- A man with 15 felony theft convictions and a felony conviction for escaping monitoring was on monitoring again before trial for a new felony retail theft charge and failed to return home after an approved 8-hour leave. Because of the 48-hour “free roaming” rule under SAFE-T he couldn’t be charged with escaping monitoring this time around. He was charged with felony damage to government property because his ankle bracelet had been sliced off. He said a CTA train did it.
- A City Colleges of Chicago basketball coach forged employment documentation for pretrial defendants so they could get exceptions to limitations on their movement around the city while on electronic monitoring.
Sheriff Thomas Dart’s Office has decried short-staffing by the county, saying he lacked sufficient deputies to pursue defendants who violate monitoring restrictions on their movement.
Dart also in April of this year and again recently reiterated a call to roll back the twice-weekly “essential movement” monitoring breaks created under SAFE-T. They’ve led to some defendants on monitoring being charged with new crimes.
Full extent of crimes by “monitored” defendants can’t be known.
The full extent of crimes committed by any released pretrial defendants in Cook County – including those specifically on electronic monitoring – is unknown. That’s because only 6 percent of major crimes reported in Chicago actually result in arrests, according to 2021 data. Low arrest rates in other cities impose the same limitations on knowing the real total number of pretrial offenses by charged and released defendants, whether or not they are on electronic monitoring.
The increased misuse of electronic monitoring is just one piece of bail reform’s failure in Cook County. Now, alarmingly, the rest of the state will be subject to a version of bail reform foisted on it by the Cook County legislators who drove adoption of the SAFE-T Act.
The fall veto session may represent one last real chance to correct the SAFE-T Act’s many flaws or scrap it entirely and start over. Sadly, Illinois voters are like “non-playing characters” in a video game. They choose to exercise no leverage. So don’t hold your breath.
Read more from Wirepoints:
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
It is another in a long list of outrages from Democrats. The thing is, they do not care one whit what we think. I am afraid Illinois is finished.
Law-abiding citizens to out-migrate, while hard criminals are incentivized to in-migrate to Illinois. Both groups are motivated to vote with their feet!
What else is new. Look at the results of the mid-term elections in predominantly blue states It appears that most of the voters in those government entities are quite happy with this insanity. The ones who are not will leave Illinois, New York, Michigan and California for states run by sane Republican governors. Look at Florida, and if you can move there or to other red states, do so as soon as possible. It is not going to get better in Illinois for the foreseeable future.
Nothing shocks me anymore. How sad is that? I’m out of words about what is going to happen in Illinois. Too many people here are brainwashed and can’t think for themselves anymore.
We are doomed. Democrats don’t care about innocent citizens.
This entire EM/SAFE-T Act situation is the very definition of insanity: Doing the same thing that doesn’t work over and over again, and expecting a different result. The only people who will be more safe come January 1, 2023 are the criminal elements statewide…more safe from punishment and penalty.
I’m sick of mentally ill leftists enacting policies designed to destroy our society so that they can seize more power and control out of the chaos THEY’VE created. The problem is, with the rampant voter fraud and corruption in our elections, cleaning up our election system will be an uphill battle.
Once again with this article, Mr Rosenberg uncovers a failure of local and state government – this time the judicial system. Criminals are literally “walking free” after committing major felonies. As Mr Rosenberg notes, the true number of crimes committed by those who are “monitored” is unknown, however, the spike in crime in Cook County dovetails with the increase in electronic monitoring. Repeating the same thing and expecting a different result is, as Einstein noted, a form of insanity. It is beyond time that the citizens of Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois elect new leaders.
The so called “SAFE T act” is an open invitation to commit more crime. It’s grooming young kids into the criminal lifestyle until they commit a crime they can’t walk away from. It’s cruel, not compassionate. When you have suspects arrested on illegal gun charges and then let them go, please don’t hold marches to end “gun violence”. Guns don’t fire themselves. The creep who was in police custody but let out is the one who pulled the trigger. And the insane democrat policy that put him back on the street is to blame. Not the NRA.
In Matt Rosenberg’s latest article, the table presented with red ink (increases in crime) translates into genuine quality of life (or lack thereof) issues. While a deeper dive may be needed, the decreases reflected in the bottom six categories could use a bit more clarity from the city of Chicago and Cook County. The red ink increases are tactile crimes. Wet work. The bottom six could have possibly decreased as law enforcement pursued the more heinous crimes in lieu of pursuing lesser ones. For example, the placing of pretrial defendants on ankle bracelets for charges of robbery has increased while… Read more »
If Pritzkers SAFE T bill is so great, why was the vote in
the legislature at 2am?
on the last day of a lame duck session?
After seeing what havoc this has wrought in Cook County, the answer was to spread it statewide. Obviously, our “ representatives “ are not representing. Interesting to see what the vote in Cook County brings this year- or will the ignorance of no info voters prevail? Raul and Evans need to be called out on a daily basis.
Just for the heck of it, I looked up the background of State Senator Robert Peters, who along with IL Att’y General Kwame Raoul, were reportedly the brainchildren of the SAFE-T Act. Peters no doubt had a tough upbringing, born deaf & speech-challenged to a mother on drugs, but to his credit took responsibility and made something for himself. So, the question begs–how does he in good conscience conjure up this law that absolves responsibility for criminal acts? And how does Pritzker, on 3rd base from a triple he didn’t hit, push this through? My mother calls those types ‘idiot’s… Read more »
Terrifying. Tom Dart acknowledged the many vulnerabilities and failures of this program last year. What’s different now?
Thank you, Matt, for providing the truth. I’m praying people are reading this where I’ve posted on Facebook.
IL puts a lot of black people in jail. Blacks make up over half our jail and prison populations. The new law was the result of the Black Caucus wanting fewer black people in jail. The black people our society arrests are the family members, friends, peers, co-workers, uncles, brothers, fathers, etc of the black caucus and the black community. The E in SAFE-T stands for Equity. Equity to the black caucus means arresting, detaining and jailing fewer black people. The black caucus knows these people are guilty, they know they are going to commit more crimes, they know that… Read more »
…and yet the politicians claim that crime is not up, and that there is no more risk from violent crimes by those on electronic monitoring…which is an utter lie. The may be a point sometime in the future when the electors in Illinois see the light and realize they are victimizing themselves by allowing these liberal justice system policies to exist. The politicians seem not to care the the majority of victims are in the Black community, the constituency they claim to serve the most. HA! The cynicism of the Democrat politicians in Illinois toward it’s citizens borders on criminal…because… Read more »
The Black community is overwhelmingly happy with their representation. They want this bill. It means fewer of their uncles, brothers, cousins and family members will be detained pretrial, and they will spend less time in jail. Sure, they might be increased crime, but, that’s a small price for society to pay if your son/brother/uncle/father/baby daddy is locked up for something stupid and can’t get out of jail.
Do you get credit for time served if you are found guilty?
Ah, “ankle bracelets.” For a moment I thought I was reading an article in Vogue. But I digress. Illinois is largely populated by political hacks. Also, lazy journalistic hacks. Thank god there are a few honest investigative journalists like Matt Rosenberg. When Matt returned to his Chicago, he discovered a terrifying reality—a crime-ridden city being ground into the dirt by criminals, and made worse by a wretched piece of legislation, the SAFE-T Act, The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act was spawned by two Democrat political hacks, St. Senator Robert Peters and Ill. Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and… Read more »
Thank you Matt for explaining this so every person in Illinois can understand it.
Please vote red on November 8th. Safety of everyone should be a priority, it obviously isn’t with Pritzker in office.
I remember a time when women wore ankle bracelets and they were quite fashionable. Oh how the times have changed.
It seems we in the suburbs, felt very safe going downtown, under Mayor Richard M. Daley…there was a need for peace and justice, and he made it so.
Let’s be clear. The purpose behind this bill was always to garner votes. It was never intended to make communities safer and is in fact a catalyst to corruption. 100 of 102 State’s Attorneys disagree with this soon to be law and has ACTUAL BIPARTISAN citizen and elected official support for its repeal.
The Black Caucus already has their votes. They are from the D+90% districts where the legislator is appointed after the predecessor resigns, and they have no opponents in the general or the primary. They’re never worried about reelection. They’re never kicked out of office. This bill was about one thing: the black caucus wanted fewer of its community members in jail. Our state arrests a lot of black people and our jails are disproportionately black people. These detainees aren’t just random people out of nowhere, they are the sons, daughters, uncles, fathers, brothers and cousins of community members. They don’t… Read more »
The policies of the most radical of leftists is what has caused the problems we now face. It is absolutely ridiculous that elected officials forced this on citizens and face no repercussions for the devastation those policies have caused. These so-called democratic socialists are a cancer on society. Where has the American spirit of liberty gone and why do they tolerate this?
The hardcore marxists in the former Tsarist Russia started out very small, maybe 10% and never had more than 25% of the population’s support, and it was almost exclusively in the cities. That’s where the DSA members are now. A small percentage of the population, mostly in the cities, and they’ve almost completely taken over the Democrat primaries in our one-party state. They face no general election opposition. And progressive Democrat sounds so nice and innocent too. They put a fresh face on their websites and their policies, all about helping move society forward isntead of backwards. But they’re really… Read more »
Our problem is threefold: 1) The perennially stupid voters in Chicago and Illinois. All you must do is look that who they elect and reelect every time. The only qualification for many voters is name recognition. Incumbents have that one nailed. 2) Chicago schools and schools in many districts graduate students who are unable to locate their behinds with both hands. They are easy prey for those in #3 below. 3) The “press-tocricy” (my word). These are the media elites who have dumbed down nearly all facets of civilization. The media is staffed my nitwits who do little more than parrot each other’s… Read more »
With the volume of articles on this site and some others about crime, both in Chicago and other big cities, it cannot be ignorance of the issue that hints at nothing changing. So what is it? Someone must be benefitting from the misery imposed on city residents. Because no other explanation makes sense. Politicians are usually motivated by self-interest; it’s why so few are principled. Having principles means being willing to lose something in defense of them. These guys mostly want to hang on to power. So, what motivates the type of self-interest that is required to support laws and… Read more »
Progressive policies are wildly popular in high crime areas. Look at Kim Foxx’s reelection rate in high crime areas. Her 90%+ vote totals would make even Putin blush.
There are so many instances of people not following electronic monitoring that are not even mentioned or recorded. If I recall correctly many people on electronic monitoring are not even accounted for and their locations are not known. However, since many people don’t see it, they don’t understand how bad it really is going.
The Democrats in Illinois are placing all citizens – but especially those in the high-crime areas – at incredible risk. What’s unbelievable? These same people will vote them into office… again, and again, and again. As President Trump said to such populations during the 2016 Presidential Campaign: “Vote Republican! What do you have to lose?” And as noted in the chart above, with the support the police and law enforcement received during the Trump Administration that set the tone for the entire country, the results are far different than 2 years of Biden and the Democrats from the White House… Read more »
If only this piece could be read by every Illinois resident. Thank you for clearly articulating the continued problems that criminal “justice reform” is posing to law abiding citizens.
Safety act for who the criminals
This would have been a great twilight episode, only thing it’s a TV show. It’s real life
Thank you for spelling it out to all who follow blindly and have no clue what they are voting for. Safety Act, is hardly bringing your safety. I URGE you to take this seriously, as nobody is out of range for it’s consequences.
I pray a time in the future when such thinking will be viewed as archaic as blood letting and leeches for medical treatment. It’s barbaric.
Crime heretofore endemic to Cook County will soon become commonplace throughout Illinois.
If the legislature doesn’t change this insane law, can it be stopped in court?
The situation is insane. Judges are letting violent criminals out into a monitoring system that is incapable of monitoring anyone because the number of criminals to be monitored is overwhelming. We need to change the mindset of the criminal justice system by changing the name from “criminal justice” which nowadays seems to indicate protecting the criminal, to “victim justice system” so that past victims are protected and no new victims are created.
No wonder C(r)ook County prosecutors are quitting in record numbers. It angers me that people still vote party over principle, not realizing ( because they dont do the research) that their own safety is at risk.
Sadly I don’t think we can save Illinois. We must let it reap the rewards of the actions of the politicians the foolish liberals voted for. When the last sane person leaves maybe some will wake up or wallow in the hell, they helped create.
I came to the same realization a couple years ago. Welcome to the club.
The UNSafe-T-Act will make this worse exponentially.
48 Hours of free time while on monitoring is ludicrous.
This law needs to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch
We need to bring back the chain gangs do the incarcerated can offset the cost of their keep. They may even learn basic job skills for the first time in their life such as getting up while it is still dark, getting dressed for work, and working with others as part of a team.
Right. 48 hours? What’s the point of even having a monitor?
Excellent point…It’s WORSE than the stats report…
Key Passage:
The full extent of crimes committed by any released pretrial defendants in Cook County – including those specifically on electronic monitoring – is unknown. That’s because only 6 percent of major crimes reported in Chicago actually result in arrests, according to 2021 data. Low arrest rates in other cities impose the same limitations on knowing the real total number of pretrial offenses by charged and released defendants, whether or not they are on electronic monitoring.
I may never leave my home again. Yes I know that’s a bit drastic. I have spoken to friends they feel and stated the same. Conversation included I won’t drive alone at night.
To think I once lived in a city where I could walk to meet up with friends is no more.
Why I must ask? Why are criminals now getting rewarded? Is this what they want? Do they understand this is wrong and simply don’t care?
What can we do?
Thanks for your column and staggering stats.
I just keep shaking my head.
“‘non- playing characters’ in a video game…” is spot on
As my stats expert husband always says about this topic, it’s always going to trend downward. We have many from Chicago and St Louis and Milwaukee etc caught with warrants and violent offenses here in “down state land”. I really fear the worse is coming.
We should be shaking our heads at this in unbelief, unfortunately the people of Chicago, Cook County and now the State of Illinois, have drunk deeply from these ridiculous policies. They have bought the dog and pony shows of the progressive left, and now must reap what has been sown.
The question is this, when will the people of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois wake up?
The question is this, when will the people of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois wake up?
The question is, when will those who have woken up (like yourself) get out of Illinois? If you stay, the knowledge is irrelevant.
A horror story that is about to become a lot worse under the Safe-T Act.