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Quote/Term of the Week

Pretrial detention / noun

When an individual remains in jail while waiting for a trial. This detention period can last anywhere from days to years.

Documenting pretrial detention

Chicago Documenters is partnering with Illinois Network for PreTrial Justice (INPJ) to document how Cook County’s court system is implementing the SAFE-T Act’s Pretrial Fairness Act. Our pilot, which will begin in March, includes a special training on how to court watch along with relevant context on the act.

After years of organizing and advocacy, the Illinois legislature passed the Pretrial Fairness Act in 2021. The law replaced the county’s cash bail system with one based upon risk assessment and went into effect in 2023.

The Pretrial Fairness Act accomplished multiple things, including: 

  • Abolishing money bond: This ensures that people who have been approved for release by a judge don’t stay in jail because they cannot afford to pay the bond.

  • Limits detention to defendants charged with the most serious crimes: Under this, only people charged with violent crimes such as murder, domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault; and/or who are found to be a flight risk or a specific threat to someone else’s safety can be detained in jail while their case proceeds. 

  • Regulates the factors for determining risk: This ensures that defense attorneys, prosecutors  and judges use the same set of risk assessment tools to decide if someone should be released pending trial. 

A year after the acts went into effect, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice reported the number of people in jail pending a trial decreased by 14% in Cook County, 14% in other urban counties and 25% in rural counties. The rates of people who failed to attend their court hearings dropped from 17% to 15% across the state.

Since 2023, statewide violent and property crime rates have dropped by 12% and in Chicago, murders decreased by 8.6%, continuing a three-year downward trend that has carried into 2026.

Despite this, upon taking office in 2025, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has made a concerted effort to increase pre-trial detention rates.

Between January and mid-May 2025, judges and prosecutors incarcerated nearly twice as many people at first appearance detention hearings as they did in the same time period in 2024 — even though there was no increase in arrests, according to Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice. In the same time period, the number of times the State’s Attorney’s Office requested to incarcerate people awaiting trial increased 70% compared to 2024.

As of mid-2025, the Cook County Jail population was higher than before the Pretrial Fairness Act, according to a Loyola University report. Burke has defended the strategy, saying her office is cracking down more on gun crimes, domestic violence and other serious felonies.

Experts and advocates argue that pretrial detention contributes to higher rates of destabilization both for the people incarcerated and their communities. They also say it makes it more likely for people to be arrested in the future, even when they are acquitted of  criminal charges. Pretrial detention also places further burden on taxpayers who now must foot the bill for incarcerating people who could safely return to community. In 2024, a WBEZ analysis showed the Department of Corrections spending hadn’t dropped much compared to the reducing population of people in jail. At the time, it cost $130 a day to keep someone in jail or on electronic monitoring.

The state’s push to increase detention rates combined with the murky complexities of the Cook County system makes it difficult to navigate for those impacted and their communities. 

That’s where Chicago Documenters comes in.

Along with our partners, we are building a public record of the results of these detention hearings. Our goals are to get eyes on the process, learn what’s working and what’s not, hold our local leaders accountable, and find the information people need to better understand one of the country’s largest court and jail systems. 

Interested in partnering with us on this pilot or further coverage of pretrial detention? Email Chicago Documenters at documenters@citybureau.org.

What you can do:

Attend Documenting Cook County's Detention Hearings: Are you a Chicago Documenter looking to get involved with our court watching pilot? Register to attend one of our upcoming training sessions  at docs.org. 

NOTE: If you are not currently a Documenter, you must first attend our Orientation on Wednesday, Feb. 18 before getting trained for court watching. 

Catch up on the headlines & history:

  • Pretrial Fairness Act would make Illinois the first state to abolish cash bail | Injustice Watch

  • No, There Is No ‘Purge Law’ In Illinois. Here Are The Facts About Ending Cash Bail | Block Club Chicago

  • Top Democrats Say They Would Consider Small Changes to Illinois’ SAFE-T Act | WTTW

A version of this story was first published in the February 11, 2026 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.