Cashless bail and electronic monitoring are again hot button issues in Cook County and Illinois after a number of high profile cases involving the practices. Among those cases is that of Aphonso Talley, a 7-time convicted felon who was on free on electronic monitoring when he allegedly killed a Chicago Police officer and injured another.
Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr. joined The Point to discuss some of the intricacies of the programs, and what they may look like going forward. Mitchell called the Talley case a horrible tragedy and the worst case scenario. But, he argues basing policies off of the worst case scenario may not be the best solution, “if we think that’s what happens the majority of the time, we will create policy that doesn’t react to what’s actually happening in the balance of cases.”
Mitchell tells The Point the pretrial decisions are not the same as the outcome of the case, “We live in a society and we enjoy liberties in society where an individual who’s accused of a criminal offense goes before a judge, the judge makes a decision about what should happen during the pendency of the case… I don’t want to live in a world where I could accuse you of doing something violent and there’s not even a hearing. You just are locked up.”…