Three members of Southern Illinois’ House Republican delegation, State Representative Dave Severin, State Representative Patrick Windhorst, and State Representative Paul Jacobs, issued the following joint statement this evening in response to the Illinois Supreme Court’s order that stays the end of cash bail contained in the controversial SAFE-T Act pending review of the Kankakee County Circuit judge’s ruling from earlier this week.
“We are encouraged by this evening’s Illinois Supreme Court order that stays the end of cash bail. This is a welcome bit of news ahead of the looming New Year, as chaos was likely to ensue across the state due to the confusing patchwork of counties that would have had cash bail or not. We have been steadfast in our argument that the Illinois Constitution envisions a cash bail system, and that ending cash bail was an unconstitutional and dangerous policy decision. We applaud today’s ruling, and will await the Supreme Court’s review of the case on appeal.”