Downstate Sheriffs, Bailey Decry Cashless Bail, SAFE-T Act Ruling

Cash bail will end soon in Illinois after the state supreme court on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of the SAFE-T Act, prompting outcry and objections from some law enforcement and political leaders downstate.

“I can’t believe the nonsense that we’re putting up with,” Darren Bailey, former Republican gubernatorial contender and current U.S. congressional candidate, said in a video on Facebook, in which the southern Illinois politician issued his remarks while standing beside a cornfield.

“Our law enforcement — the men and women who are signed up to serve and protect — they will be more handcuffed than those who are breaking the law.”

The court voted 5-2 in its decision regarding the legislation, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed last year. The cashless bail system was set to begin Jan. 1, but it was held up by legal challenges in a series of lawsuits brought by prosecutors and county sheriffs around the state.

A judge in Kankakee County ruled in December that the SAFE-T Act was unconstitutional, which kept the law and cashless bail from going into effect at the start of the year. But Tuesday’s decision will allow the SAFE-T Act to be effective as of Sept. 18.

“What we’ve seen is circumventing the people’s will, that’s been done by legislators and a governor who passed this law and then a supreme court using judicial review to, in effect, change the language of the Constitution,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard told Fox News. “That’s not proper, that’s not lawful.”

In a prepared statement, Bailey accused the court of acting politically, noting two of its new members received campaign donations from Pritzker.

“Once again, pay-to-play politics has triumphed over the safety and security of the people of Illinois,” he said.

Franklin County Sheriff Kyle Bacon in an interview with Fox News described the law as “an experiment on the backs of victims of crime.”

"We did our job. We arrested them, incarcerated them," Bullard told the outlet, "and then the state's attorney makes the argument that they should be remanded for trial, and the judge, based on the SAFE-T Act guidelines, says, ‘Now I'm forced to let them go.’"