No Cash Bail: Illinois Experiment with Justice Reform: LWVCC Reading Club

April 4, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm. Champaign Public Library, Robeson Room.

This month's Reading Club topic will be "No Cash Bail: The Illinois Experiment with Justice Reform." Since September 2023, Illinois courts no longer use a cash bail system. Instead, they use a “pretrial release” system as allowed by the SAFE-T Act. 
Articles to read and discuss will be sent out to members soon. Plan to come to learn more about this new system and what it means for the judicial process.

Here are some optional reading, watching, and listening options.  Choose what you wish from the list and come join the discussion of this timely topic.

Read

• "Bond Reform has Reduced Jail Population But State Data on Pretrial Retention is 18 Months Late,"  article in Block Club Chicago
• "Illinois Became the First State to Fully Eliminate Cash Bail.  Here's How It is Working,"  article in WBEZ Chicago NPR News Source.
• If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin.  Many print copies of the book are available at local libraries.

Watch

• If Beale Street Could Talk.   Copies of this 2018 movie are available at the local libraries.  Also, it is available free to subscribers of Amazon Prime, STARZ, and Xumo Play (with ads).  It can be rented or purchased on other streaming services.

Listen

• A 3-minute podcast from NPR, "The next steps now that Illinois has abolished cash bail"  

The Reading Club Committee