Elimination of Cash Bail in Illinois: Financial Impact Analysis

By The Civic Federation

In preparation for the elimination of cash bail beginning in January 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court Pretrial Practices Implementation Task Force set out to measure the financial impact this policy change will have on counties throughout the State of Illinois, as well as on circuit court clerks who will no longer retain up to 10% of bond deposits as bond processing fees. In a first of-its-kind comprehensive analysis, this report provides information about bond payments collected and disbursed in criminal cases based on data from 96 of the 102 counties in Illinois. The primary purpose of the analysis was to identify how much money counties across Illinois collect and process annually in bond payments, and how circuit court clerks distribute those bond amounts. The report focuses on the amount of bond payments applied, which are payments processed and disbursed at the conclusion of a criminal case, as opposed to bond payments collected at the time of pretrial release. Bond payments are applied to a variety of purposes at the conclusion of a criminal case, including fines, fees, assessments, court costs, restitution, and refunds to the person who paid the bond.

Chicago: Civil Federation, 2022. 37p.