(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker says he expects there will be changes in the state’s controversial new criminal justice reform law, but he is still staunchly defending it.
Republican campaign commercials and some law enforcement officials say the part of the so-called SAFE-T Act that ends cash bail in Illinois will send more violent criminals back onto the streets.
Pritzker says that’s not what the law does when it takes effect Jan. 1.
Also, he argues one problem with cash bail is that even violent people can buy their way back onto the streets if they or their families put up the money.
The new law would keep them behind bars, Pritzker said.
Another problem, he says, is that under the current system, a woman who shoplifts baby diapers for her child may spend months in jail because she could not afford bail before trial.
And yet, the governor said, parts of criminal reform package should be changed. He points out some changes have already been made.
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