MACON COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) – One by one people went before a Macon County judge for their arraignment. But the process looks a little different than in the past – no cash bail is now in full swing across Illinois.
In the courtroom, the judge decided whether or not someone should be detained before their trial. In many of the cases, the judge ruled to release the person pre-trial and set conditions they must follow while out on release.
“They were probably people that would have had lower bonds set anyway,” Scott Rueter, the Macon County state’s attorney, said. “It’s not a great crisis that they’re being released without any bond money in terms of guaranteeing their appearance, especially since we got the conditions.”
Others were detained depending on what they were charged with, taking into account if the person was a threat to public safety or a flight risk. They also looked at their overall criminal history.
“We tried to be very selective about which ones we wanted to proceed on, and make sure that we got it right,” Rueter said.
In one case regarding burglary charges, they had to navigate between the old and the new systems.
“He had other charges that while still bond was pending, he’s being held on those but he can’t be detained on these even though these charges and his older charges are exactly the same,” Rueter said.
Overall, Rueter said the first day under the no cash bail system went smoothly.
“We basically got everything we wanted today in terms of either people detained or released on conditions, so from our point of view, it went fairly well,” Rueter said.
The county’s chief public defender, Michelle Sanders, agreed.
“The rulings were not unexpected, I think,” Sanders said. “I really appreciate it, we were able to get some released with conditions, it made sense because these are individuals who likely would have been able to post their bond anyway.”
A little under 300 people are behind bars in the Macon County Jail. Sanders said some will have to decide if they want to move their case to the new no cash bail system.
“We also do have a small percentage of people who are held on non-detainables that we are in the process of getting out,” Sanders said. “We have petitions going on file today, they’re held on a non-detainable offense, we’ll get them into court within the next week, get a hearing done, get them out.”
Reuter said he doesn’t have any major concerns about how the new system will operate moving forward.
“We’ll hit bumps and there’ll be problems but I think we’ll weather them pretty well,” Rueter said.
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