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Prosecutor warns of dangers of bill that will "destroy" Illinois' criminal justice system

"I never, in my 40 years in this profession, thought I would see anything close to this... The intent of this law is to destroy the criminal justice system in Illinois and I’m not going to let that happen," said James Glasgow.

preso, detención, policía

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Published by
Verónica Silveri Pazos

In Illinois, Democratic Will County Prosecutor James Glasgow spoke to Fox News about a criminal justice reform bill that will "tie the hands" of prosecutors and "destroy the criminal justice system."

I never, in my 40 years in this profession, ever thought I would ever see anything close to this.... The intent of this law is to destroy the criminal justice system in Illinois, and I’m not going to let that to happen.

The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act was signed into law in 2021 by the state's governor, JB Pritzker, and will implement. radical reforms in the justice system, said the prosecutor, who is also suing Pritzker in hopes of preventing the regulation from going into effect in January 2023.

More than 100 prosecutors against the law

Under the SAFE-T Act, second-degree murder, aggravated assault, drug-related offenses, intimidation, vehicle theft, and arson will not be arrestable offenses unless the suspect is proven to be a risk to public safety.

Critics of the law disagree with some of the regulations included, such as:

  • Eliminating cash bail.
  • Prohibiting judges from considering a defendant's past behavior in determining whether he or she is a risk to public safety.
  • New police training policies, with no additional funding for departments.

Glasgow is one of the most high-profile prosecutors to speak out against the law and joins a list of more than 100 of 102 Democratic and Republican state attorneys general who oppose its implementation.

The prosecutor said that the biggest "fallacy" of this new law is that more than half of the inmates in the prisons will be released. Those charged with felonies, although they will continue to be detained, must be brought back to trial within 90 days of its implementation, otherwise they would be released. The task of bringing them to trial, he said, is "practically impossible given the complexity of many legal cases":

Have you ever heard of any government passing a law to release everyone in their jails? No one has ever done that before, and no one would ever think to do that.... That would be suicide.

"The bottom line is there has to be a balance," said Glasgow. "And when someone crosses the line, with respect to violent crime, that needs to be addressed aggressively to prevent that person from harming other people."

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