What the Law?

Although the SAFE-T Act was designed to eliminate wealth-based disparities, it has arguably replaced one two-tiered system with another. Wealthier defendants can afford private attorneys, who manage fewer cases and devote more resources to their clients. By contrast, indigent defendants must rely on overburdened public defenders.

Before the Act, families often used bond refunds to pay for private legal representation. With cash bail eliminated, that option has vanished, leaving many low-income defendants with diminished access to experienced counsel. In practice, the Act may have increased inequality in legal representation, even as it reduced inequality in pretrial release.

(Original featured photo above adapted from UIC School of Public Health photo)

For almost anyone charged with a crime, the experience is one of the most challenging of their lives. Those new to the system are introduced to a slow, inefficient, and unfriendly justice system that views them as numbers instead of human beings. Repeat visitors are subject to the continued insistence that they are problematic to society and deserving of punishment. Defendant are labeled as “criminals”, regardless of the circumstances of their cases, their lives or even their true guilt. As defense attorneys and human beings, we truly do not want our clients or anyone else to suffer, and have noticed the pervasive problem of unaddressed mental health concerns and the negative effect it has on society and individuals.