With a sales tax referendum question being put to voters in less than a week, Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser and other public safety officials in the county described increasing staffing and operational costs they’re facing after Illinois ended cash bail.
At the Kane County Board Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, Mosser and others outlined staffing and operating changes they’ve had to make – from hiring additional attorneys to paying for more overtime hours for staff at hearings that stretch through the day – since the SAFE-T Act took effect in Illinois on Sept. 18, 2023.
The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today law, known as the SAFE-T Act, includes the Pretrial Fairness Act. It includes a number of provisions, for example, requiring police officers statewide to wear body cameras and allowing more anonymous complaints to be filed against police officers, according to past reporting. But eliminating cash bail has been perhaps the most contentious provision of the law.
Now, in Kane County, top public safety officials are saying the requirements of the law are straining their resources.
Before the SAFE-T Act, bond court took only the first half of the day, Kane County Associate Judge Julia Yetter told county board members at Tuesday’s meeting. Now, the court appearance procedures required by the new legislation are stretching through the whole day, Yetter, who was part of the Kane County PFA Implementation Task Force, said.
Many people who are not eligible to be detained per the SAFE-T Act are still recommended to be released under certain conditions, officials said. Those cases are seen in the morning, Yetter said. In the afternoon, the county holds detention hearings, which require discovery and preparation. Essentially, Yetter explained, this means the hearings are more involved than before and are taking more time – and more staff.
That also means more overtime pay for clerks, said Kane County Circuit Clerk Theresa Barreiro. The number of overtime hours more than doubled from 2023 to 2024, Barreiro said.
Longer hearings, with more discussion of the evidence at the first stage of a case, were effects noted as soon as the SAFE-T Act was passed, according to previous reporting.
Releasing individuals under certain conditions also necessitates more supervision from Court Services than if those individuals were supervised at the Kane County Jail, said Kane County Court Services Director LaTanya Hill.
They also send out court reminders to individuals released, Kyle Grenfell, a program manager at Kane County Court Services, said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“This is hands-down the most effective thing that we can do for our pretrial clients is remind them of each and every court appearance that they have,” Grenfell said, citing a 27% increase in court reminders, mainly via text.
But they haven’t increased staffing levels to respond to a higher rate of court reminders, Grenfell said.
“We found ourselves in this position of needing to do more with less,” Grenfell said.
A representative from the Kane County Sheriff’s Office said that individuals who are released under certain conditions and then violate those conditions often have to be transported from other counties back to Kane County for bond call. That’s done by two officers, on overtime, he said.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain has previously spoken against the SAFE-T Act, citing an increase in the jail population. Previously calling the effects of the act as a “constant revolving door,” Hain criticized the end of cash bail for reducing the amount of time some people who are arrested ultimately spend in jail and therefore reducing the length of time for them to go through the county’s reentry process. And a higher jail population increases operating costs, Hain noted.
A year after the SAFE-T Act was passed, researchers said the rate of defendants failing to appear in court had not increased, and daily jail populations had dropped in most places across the state, according to past reporting.
To account for the changes spurred on by the new law, Mosser said the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office has since needed to hire four felony-level attorneys and five administrative assistants – amounting to nearly $1 million in additional salary expenses for 2024. Mosser said the county has increased staff salaries to keep up with neighboring counties and retain employees. They’re also spending nearly $70,000 extra each year after the Pretrial Fairness Act to staff bond call, according to Mosser.
To account for those coming to court needing attorneys, the Kane County Public Defender’s Office has hired three attorneys, each paid $75,000, and two support positions at $33,427, Public Defender Rachele Conant said on Tuesday.
“All of these requests for increases from the county board, from us to you, were made because the state legislature did not provide funding for the counties to be able to implement a law that, if we didn’t implement the law, we would be in trouble,” Mosser said. “This unfunded mandate came at the cost of the Kane County citizens and every county throughout the state of Illinois because funding wasn’t anticipated or given.”
The state has given some funding, such as a $1 million grant last June that in part went toward funding positions mandated by the SAFE-T Act, according to past reporting.
But despite concerns about staffing levels and funding, Mosser defended the SAFE-T Act – with some caveats.
“There are people in some communities who will hold everybody on a bond, and they won’t really look at the risk factor versus not being a risk,” Mosser said. “I agree with the elimination of cash bail. We shouldn’t be able to pay our way out, and I say that for violent offenders.”
Nevertheless, Mosser said the act does not provide a “wide enough detention net.”
Under the act, individuals can be held in jail for certain offenses if there’s a danger they will flee, or if they pose a danger to themselves or others. But some offenses are simply not detainable, Mosser said. She said she’s advocating in Springfield to expand the list of detainable offenses – a suggestion the vast majority of state’s attorneys in Illinois are in favor of, according to Mosser. Mosser has previously spoken in support of modifications to the SAFE-T Act, including before it became law.
Nevertheless, reform or no reform, county officials are concerned about how they’ll pay for the increased staffing needs. The county’s upcoming sales tax referendum represents one possibility.
On April 1, county voters will be asked whether they support a 0.75% sales tax increase meant to boost funding for public safety services. The county has previously said the services that would receive revenue from the successful passage of the referendum include the offices of the sheriff, state’s attorney, public defender, coroner and circuit clerk; KaneComm 911; Public Health and the Office of Emergency Management.
But it’s not clear how the county will handle increased expenses if the measure fails. The county will have to pay for the state-mandated court reform regardless, Mosser reminded the board.
“Come April 1, referendum passed or not … we still have to do this,” Mosser said. “This law isn’t going away.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
