Tell Your Legislator to Defend The Pretrial Fairness Act Today!

One year ago Illinois passed historic criminal justice legislation that included the Pretrial Fairness Act and became the first state in the nation to abolish the use of money bail!

This is a HUGE victory in the fight to end pretrial detention and the criminalization of poverty. But this extraordinary victory is being threatened before it can even be fully implemented…

Even though the Pretrial Fairness Act won’t go into full effect until January 2023, law enforcement, conservative legislators, and even Mayor Lightfoot are busy working to repeal the act and/or undermine its impact by using racist scare tactics and disinformation to influence public opinion.

Despite research verifying that releasing people pretrial does not negatively impact public safety, law enforcement has started suggesting the contrary. Some legislators are pushing to pass so-called “tough on crime” bills aimed at fueling mass incarceration in the upcoming legislative session. And now, a Republican state representative has proposed a resolution calling to fully repeal the Pretrial Fairness Act!

Ending money bail is essential to ending the incarceration of Black people in the United States and a pivotal step toward ending the criminalization of poverty of Black people.

We know that when people are incarcerated pretrial, they lose jobs, housing, and even custody of their children. After just a month in jail, people can lose access to vital public benefits like Medicaid.

People held pretrial are also more likely to plead guilty (even to crimes they did not commit) and receive longer sentences. The rippling impact is devastating.

This is why it’s vital that the Pretrial Fairness Act isn’t repealed or undercut by legislation that simply further fuels mass incarceration. We need your support to ensure this monumental act is protected in order to make our communities safer.

Let your legislator know that the same powerful and relentless community that pushed them to pass the Pretrial Fairness Act is watching to ensure they do not counteract that progress.

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Dear [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here],

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As your constituent, I am writing to urgently request that you resist attempts from some of your fellow legislators to pass regressive “tough-on-crime” bills this session that would counteract reforms meant to address systemic racism and inequality in our criminal legal system. Time and time again, we have seen that these types of proposals aren’t tough on crime so much as they’re tough on communities grappling with poverty and systemic disinvestment. Historically, a wave of political resistance always follows significant steps toward progress. If the legislature succumbs to this pressure, it risks reinstating the very harm it sought to uproot in the passage of the SAFE-T Act.

Passing that transformative legislation was a step in the right direction. Provisions like the Pretrial Fairness Act will make our communities safer by considering the specific circumstances of every case, instead of relying on finances to determine who gets to return to their community and who is caged. By reducing pretrial incarceration, Illinois will allow people to maintain jobs, supportive relationships, and stability while awaiting trial, making us all safer.

If you are seeking more ways to build safer communities, I ask you to earnestly consider non-carceral solutions that infuse supportive resources into communities and give them what they need to thrive. Communities across Illinois need real solutions to harm that happens in our neighborhoods — not more policies driving the mass incarceration that has destabilized them for decades. Increased penalties and threats of harsh punishment don’t heal, restore, or enhance safety. Instead, incarceration undermines healing. It offers no real relief to victims, and inflicts abuse on those accused of causing harm, all the while failing to acknowledge the overlap between those labeled “victims” and “perpetrators.”. Many people accused of causing harm have experienced abuse, neglect, and exclusion from opportunities to thrive, and incarceration only worsens their well-being and creates more cycles of violence. To truly end these cycles, we need education, mentorship, trauma-informed mental health care, housing, and human-centered violence intervention. These efforts have all shown themselves to do what incarceration has never done: foster healing and repair harm.

It will take courage, and the ability to stand in the face of those who only want to further entrench failed systems, but millions of Illinoisans will thank you for standing your ground, both now and in the years to come.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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