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Illinois Is Helping People Awaiting Trial Get Back to Court and Stay Out of Jail

The state has a tremendously successful pilot in four counties to offer free services to those on pretrial release. But federal budget cuts put the program at risk.

The Richard J. Daley Courthouse and Office Building in Chicago.

Last year, R.J. Horacek, a 29-year-old Illinois resident, was arrested by police in DuPage County. After the arrest, he didn’t spend any time in jail—Illinois abolished cash bail three years ago—but over the past year, he has been required to regularly appear in court as his case proceeds. In December, Horacek moved to Aurora, a six-hour walk from the court. He doesn’t have a car or any extra funds to pay for rideshares; he’s unemployed and was recently homeless. He has no family or friends nearby. “I pretty much have no one,” he said. If he fails to make it to an in-person hearing, he could have a warrant issued for his arrest for failing to appear.

Then in March, a public defender told Horacek about Radical Hospitality Ministries, a nonprofit that is runs one of four pilot sites through state grants to offer a variety of free pretrial services to people like him. Three days before an in-person hearing, as he contemplated making that six-hour walk, the organization told him it could get him to the courthouse for free. He immediately felt “that stress lift off my shoulders,” he said. “I’ve been struggling with everything, and just to have this one part of it [taken care of], that is huge.” The organization has given him rides to and from court ever since. “They make it happen no matter what, because they understand people in my scenario don’t have any other means,” he said. “Without their support, it feels quite impossible.”

That wasn’t the only help Horacek received. The organization offers food to people who have been released pretrial and has given Horacek a snack and tea after stressful court appearances. It put him in touch with a nearby legal aid organization. It connected him to a church that helped him print documents for court for free and covered the cost of legal consultation.

Horacek struggled to express his gratitude for the help Radical Hospitality Ministries has given him. It has “been everything I’ve needed and a huge stress off my shoulders,” he said. “No matter what it is, how it is, I do plan on paying them back in some way, shape, and form.”

In 2021, Illinois lawmakers passed the Pretrial Fairness Act, which, as of September 2023, made the state the first to eliminate cash bail. The effects were immediate: Within a year, the urban jail population fell by 14 percent and the rural population declined by 25 percent. But lawmakers didn’t stop there. Last year, the legislature allocated $3.5 million to pilot sites in four counties throughout the state to offer free services to those on pretrial release to help them return to court and avoid getting tangled up with the legal system in the future. The sites have already helped hundreds of people with things like transportation to courthouses, childcare during their hearings, and connections to mental health and substance abuse programs at no cost. Advocates say they are working remarkably well, helping people avoid arrest for failure to appear and, ultimately, move on with their lives.

But the state legislature is currently debating the budget for next fiscal year, and including funding for this program is not guaranteed. Its future hangs in the balance just months after the programs got off the ground.

The abolition of cash bail in Illinois ended the fundamental injustice of people being thrown in jail because they didn’t have enough money to post bail, not because they posed a threat or were about to flee. Between 2016 and 2019, Illinois residents collectively paid nearly $150 million in bail to secure their freedom. But those charged with crimes are still obligated to return to court; a felony case can take two years of court appearances to resolve. Bail, in its original form, was intended to ensure that people returned to court; advocates wanted the state to provide services that would help people........

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