SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) - Over 180 new laws will take effect in Illinois on Jan. 1. From criminal justice reform to health care and education, there are plenty of changes you should know about before Sunday.
The pretrial fairness portion of the SAFE-T Act is the most popular law taking effect on New Year’s Day. Anyone charged with a crime on or after Jan. 1 will enter into the pretrial fairness system. No one should consider this to be a purge when the clock strikes midnight as there will be a tiered system for granting pretrial fairness hearings for people currently in jail.
Judges will prioritize low-level non-violent offenders with cases heard within seven days. People detained and considered to be flight risks will get hearings within 60 days while criminals who could be dangerous to public safety would have hearings within 90 days.
Pretrial release can be denied for anyone charged with a felony who poses a real and present threat to a person or the community based on specific facts of a case. Judges can also deny pretrial release for anyone charged with forcible felonies such as treason, murder, and sexual assault or more intense crimes like reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
”I know that I’ll say that this is my version of the Voting Rights Act,” said Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago). “This is my version of Obamacare. This is what I did in Springfield and changed the fortune for thousands of working-class Illinoisans.”
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