Pretrial Fairness Act passes, ending money bond in Illinois

In 2021, after eight years of work by organizers, legal experts, people who have been personally impacted by our racist criminal legal system, and many more, the Illinois Legislature passed the Pretrial Fairness Act. This legislation made Illinois the first state to abolish the practice of keeping people who have been accused of a crime in jail as they await trial simply because they couldn’t afford to pay a bond for their freedom. Since its implementation in 2023, TPL and our coalition partners in the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice have expanded on this transformational law by continuing to work toward restorative justice in Illinois.