- Published on
Tracking the Illinois Jail Population after the PFA implementation.
Research Briefs
The Pretrial Fairness Act
In January 2021, Illinois passed the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA). The PFA fundamentally changes bond court practices and pretrial release in Illinois by abolishing cash bail, prohibiting pretrial detention for most defendants, creating new pretrial hearing processes, curtailing the conditions that may be placed on defendants released pretrial, and limiting revocation and modification of pretrial
release.
The changes adopted in the PFA do not take effect until January 1, 2023. In order to provide Illinois’ criminal justice practitioners and policy makers with information prior to the effective date of the PFA, Loyola’s Center for Criminal Justice Research is producing a series of research briefs to provide context and insights for discussion of the potential impact of the law. By examining data from past practices, the goal of these research briefs is to estimate the potential impact of the PFA on future pretrial practices and outcomes.
All Research Briefs
- Published on
We compared jail booking and average daily jail population data for the periods immediately before and after the effective date of the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act, and found that both bookings and average populations had declined beyond what would have been expected due to normal seasonal fluctuations.- Published on
A data tool that tracks the daily Cook County Jail and Community Corrections population.- Published on
Limited data in the first month of implementation suggest that the PFA may be reducing jail usage, but the impact varies from county to county.- Published on
A little over a month after the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect, we summarize some preliminary observations on the rollout of the new law.