The SAFE-T Act of Illinois is getting national attention at a time when crime is top of mind. And in an election year, it's quickly becoming a kitchen table issue in Illinois.
According to Tom DeVore, candidate for Illinois Attorney General, 100 of 102 Illinois State's Attorneys are against the SAFE-T Act, regardless of party, and despite what Illinois' Democrat Governor is saying
"This legislation marks a substantial step toward dismantling the systemic racism that plagues our communities, our state, and our nation. And brings us closer to true safety, true fairness, and true justice," said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who signed the act, which goes into effect on January 1st. DeVore appeared on the Annie Frey Show Monday to rebuff those claims.
"JB Pritzker is just parroting what other people have written and told him to say. The substance of what's in those words, he has no idea whether it's true or not," DeVore said.
Joining DeVore in the studio in St. Louis was Pritzker's Republican opponent for Governor, Darren Bailey. "What we read about every day that's taking place in Chicago, that's going to take place across this state everywhere after January 1st if we allow it," Bailey added. "We're going to have to answer why many of the state's attorneys across the state in each of the counties- both Democrat and Republican- a couple have already filed suit and people are standing up against this."
But what seems to concern Illinois citizens, regardless of party, is the weakening of crime prevention and law enforcement that Pritzker's SAFE-T Act represents. "What's different on January 1st is the legislature and this law has tried to take away, pretty much, most of the discretion away from the court," DeVore explained. "You can detain this person pre-trial, only if, it's right out of the statute, only if they've committed one of the following categories. Seven categories. Kidnapping is not in those categories. So what your state's attorneys, any one of them you talk to in Illinois will tell you, that starting January 1st, they don't even get the ability to go to court and say, 'Judge, we should detain this person,' for reasons that the judge might find necessary."
Kidnapping, robbery, second-degree murder. These are some of the crimes Devore lists that are not in the Safe-T Act, and therefore potential criminals cannot be detained for those crimes once cash bail is eliminated. And it's been done behind closed doors and eliminating lawmakers like Bailey, who has served in the Illinois House and Senate, from involvement in the discussion.
"A lot of people don't realize that many of these laws for the last four years when they've been written, they've been written behind closed doors," Bailey said on the Annie Frey Show. "At one point in time they even changed the locks on some of the doors in one of the Capitol buildings and they posted watchers out, watching people that would come and go. That's what kind of breakdown we're seeing in Springfield."
"The Safe-T Act is designed to keep murderers and domestic abusers, violent criminals, in jail," Pritzker maintains. But according to the law's critics, it's all the other categories not directly listed in the Safe-T Act that will be the problem. You can hear the full interview by listening to The Annie Frey Show podcast. Please consider downloading the Audacy App so you never miss an episode of The Annie Frey Show
