Front & Center #8: How is Pretrial Reform Working Out in Rural Illinois?

How is Pretrial Reform Working Out in Rural Illinois?

Our statewide evaluation of the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), the Illinois law that abolished cash bail and imposed broad new restrictions on pretrial detention, is intended to be just that—statewide. That means we can’t assess the PFA’s implementation and impact without an understanding of the way the law is working in the state’s rural areas, which encompass most of its geographic area, the majority of its courthouses and jails, and 82 of its 102 counties.

We just posted a research brief that explores some of the ways that rural counties’ PFA experiences differ, both from one another and from typical urban experiences. The work is based primarily on analysis of pretrial data from 78 counties (6 urban and 72 rural) where the state’s new Office of Statewide Pretrial Services (OSPS) operates, coupled with insights from qualitative interviews with justice stakeholders in a range of rural counties.

What the new report makes clear is that almost everything about the PFA works differently in rural parts of the state. Rural counties encounter detention-eligible cases more rarely and irregularly, and they must handle them with bare-bones staffing and budgets. The rural mix of detention-eligible charges is also significantly different, and rural defendants have different histories, needs and characteristics.

All these rural differences lead to differences in the ways the PFA is used and the effects it has. For example, we found that overall, defendants charged with detention-eligible offenses in rural counties are less likely to be detained pretrial than in urban ones—primarily because prosecutors in rural counties are less likely to seek detention, even in cases where the law authorizes it. This phenomenon is probably related to resource constraints, and the fact that rural counties find it more challenging to meet the procedural and other burdens levied on pretrial detention by the PFA. It’s likely that prosecutors use their detention petitioning power more sparingly as a result.

Our analysis and interviews also shed light on distinctive rural trends in jail usage since the PFA took effect. OSPS assessment data make clear that rural defendants are more likely to have histories of drug use than urban ones. The judges, defenders, prosecutors and other rural justice stakeholders we spoke with all agreed that drugs, and particularly methamphetamines, are a major driver of rural crime.

With few or no in-patient treatment alternatives available, rural counties had long used their jails as a temporary stopgap response to drug- and alcohol-fueled offending, and many of those we interviewed defended the practice. But the PFA prohibits it. At least in cases involving charges of drug possession and other low-level offenses associated with drug dependency, pretrial detention is no longer an option for rural counties. That may be the reason pretrial populations in rural jails have collectively declined much more steeply (25%) than in the urban parts of the state (14%) since the PFA went into effect.

Easier Access to CCJ Resources on Women, Corrections, Reentry

Visitors to the Center for Criminal Justice website will find we’ve made some changes designed to open up and describe more of the Center’s work to the public:

• Supporting Justice-Involved Women. Whether viewed as offenders or victims or both, women’s needs and challenges are distinctive, and traditional justice policies, programs, and institutions have been slow to adapt to them. Our new Women and the Criminal Justice System page provides details on the Center’s ongoing research support to policymakers, practitioners, and advocates seeking to improve the ways the system responds to the needs of women.
• Informing Corrections Policy and Practice. The broad purpose of much of our collaborative research work with criminal justice professionals is to strengthen the system’s ability to respond appropriately and effectively to crime. From our new Institutional and Community Corrections page, you can link to data tools and analyses aimed at informing sentencing and corrections policy, studies of probation and parole practice, evaluations of new alternatives to formal processing and incarceration, and a range of other reports and resources generated by a decade of this varied work.
• Improving Reentry Outcomes. Our reentry research contributes to the work of developing more effective ways to support people returning from prison to the community. You can learn more at our Supporting Successful Reentry page, as well as access some of the products of this work, which includes our participation in the federally-funded Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN). As part of a larger JCOIN research collaborative that spans three states, we’re testing innovative ways to reduce opioid overdoses by more effectively linking recently incarcerated people with substance abuse treatment in their local communities.  

New Work for the New Year

If you’re interested in the Center you might like to know about some new and expanded work we’re embarking on in 2025:

• With support from the JB and MK Pritzker Family Foundation, we’ll be collaborating with the Women’s Justice Institute and others on a comprehensive study of the characteristics of women incarcerated in Illinois, including their pathways through the criminal justice system, the factors driving their justice involvement, and their exposure to trauma.
• The Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative recently provided the Center with new funding for our Prosecutorial Performance Indicators work, enabling us to help more prosecutors’ offices use data to measure performance, increase transparency, and engage with their communities. Thanks to this support, we’ll be able to create more public-facing data tools, like the prosecutorial data dashboard recently unveiled in Frederick County, Maryland.
• Funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is supporting a new research-community collaboration aimed at improving public safety in Chicago. The Center, along with other Chicago-area research universities and community leaders, will participate in what is envisioned as a community of practice for advancing community safety and neighborhood well-being in the city.

Keep Up with the Center

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