Since the SAFE-T Act in Illinois took effect back on September 18th, one major component was the elimination of cash bail. Now nearing the 90-day mark, Warren County State’s Attorney Tom Siegel says the changes of resources has been quite the demand, but the process has not been as bad as anticipated:
“It has been as expected quite the demand. It means that we might come into work in the morning and all of a sudden you have a couple of hours of work to do that you hadn’t planned on. It can be intrusive. It can mess with the rest of the plans for the day and clearly is going to be a time burden going forward, but the process has not been as bad as I had anticipated. It is the results that so far have not been as bad as I thought they might be. We have had rather good success in detaining persons that we have sought to detain. Again, we haven’t been doing this 90 days yet.”
State’s Attorney Siegel also alludes that his office is aggressively prosecuting and advocating for detention, taking an all in approach; however, come January judge assignments will be changing.
For the entire interview with Siegel, click here.
