A 60-year-old man remains locked in Cook County Jail, nearing three years behind bars for a non-criminal offense, after a state appeals court upheld a civil contempt order against him Tuesday.
Steve Fanady, unable to convince the court he lacks the $10 million he was ordered to pay his ex-wife from their 2011 divorce, faces an indefinite stay in custody—a situation his attorney calls an unconstitutional “debtor’s prison.”
Already, Fanady has spent more time behind bars than most people convicted in Cook County of illegal gun possession or even robbery. And his case provides an interesting example of justice in Illinois, where the SAFE-T Act prohibits the majority of criminal defendants from being jailed…