Kankakee Times

Illinois Rep. Jackie Haas took to Facebook recently to share her thoughts on the progress of lawsuits against the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act (SAFE-T) that relates to criminal justice reform.

"Now that oral arguments have been heard by the Illinois Supreme Court about the SAFE-T Act, we await the Justices' ruling on the constitutionality of this deeply flawed law," Haas wrote April 1.

The Illinois Supreme Court heard oral arguments on March 14 regarding constitutional questions about the SAFE-T Act, which would eliminate the use of cash bail. Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office filed an appeal of an earlier ruling that said the bill was unconstitutional, according to a report by WMAQ.

The issue at question is whether the bill violates a clause in the state’s constitution concerning the use of bail, with lawyers on both sides arguing over the definition of the term as it is used in the document, the story stated.

In December, Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas Cunnington ruled that portions of the act were unconstitutional, specifically ruling bail reform and pre-trial release provisions of the Pre-Trial Fairness Act. Cunnington ruled the SAFE-T Act violated the Separation of Powers Clause, the Victim Rights Act and that it "unconstitutionally amended Article I, Section 9 of the state's constitution, which codified cash bail in the state," WMAQ reported.

The SAFE-T act was intended to eliminate cash bail, put restrictions on use of force and had other provisions, and having been passed in 2021, would have gone into effect Jan. 1.

In February 2022, Haas sponsored a package of bills aimed at supporting police and making changes to the SAFE-T Act. House Bill 4809 would have made it a crime to remove an officer's body camera, according to a release on Haas' website. House Bill 4684 would lengthen the time between trial and arrest from 90 days, as outlined in the in the SAFE-T Act, to 120 days.