CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund has started a pilot program for poor people freed from Cook County Jail on their own recognizance.
The fund will help pay for better living conditions for defendants, said program Director Annissa Lambirth-Garrett.
“We fill that gap between what the market rate is for a unit and what that family can afford — there’s a formula for that,” Lambirth-Garrett said.
Some critics said the end of cash bail across Illinois will mean that more violent people accused of crimes will be freed while awaiting their trials, which they said will be a danger to the public.
Amy Campanelli, Vice President of the Lawndale Christian Law Center, disagrees. She said the courts are supposed to lock people up who have been shown to be dangerous:
“You can’t determine [whether] someone is violent just from the charge they’ve committed,’ Campanelli said. “There’s a whole process that’s put into place with the new safety act, and all of the pre-trial fairness act conditions that are going to start in January.
Lambirth-Garrett said defendants in their pilot program will get wraparound services, such as mental health and drug abuse treatment to help keep any from reoffending.
“The programs are there,” she said. “Programs like the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund. The support systems are there, but they cannot function without the proper monetary resources.”
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