Candace Norwood, a reporter for The 19th, wrote in an October 1 article that recent reforms to bail “can benefit women on multiple levels, from those accused of crimes to survivors of gender-based violence.”
According to Norwood, Illinois became the first state to end cash bail in 2021, when the governor signed the Pretrial Fairness Act. The new system “[uses] risk assessment tools to determine a person’s potential threat to public safety before releasing them pretrial, rather than basing the release on the person’s ability to pay.”
Norwood writes that Illinois’ efforts are part of a broader attempt to combat racial bias in the justice system. She adds, however, that conservatives, including President Donald Trump, threaten progress on “bail reform and other measures that aim to reduce incarceration and strict criminal penalties.”
Norwood reports that Trump signed two executive orders in August “threatening to withhold federal funding from states and localities that significantly reduce the use of cash bail.” She also cites bills introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Elise Stefanik that would reinstate cash bail in Washington, D.C., where it has not been in effect for more than three decades.
Opponents of cashless bail “argue that they want to crack down on crime and protect women,” Norwood writes. Advocates, however, “argue that these policies benefit women on multiple levels, from those accused of crimes to survivors of gender-based violence.”
Norwood argues that “the cash bail system highlights the inequities driving women to jails, which has long-term effects for them and their families.”
An analysis of Cook County, Illinois, from the Prison Policy Initiative claims that “women held without a conviction represent 60 percent of the country’s local jail population, and 80 percent of women in jails are mothers.” A government report found that in 2016, “53 percent of them were jobless in the 30 days prior to their incarceration,” compared to 38 percent for men.
Low-income families are destabilized by “the loss of household income due to prolonged incarceration after an arrest,” according to Norwood. She notes that “a defendant in jail pretrial typically has the option to pay their full bail amount, which can range from $5,000 for forgery to $1 million for a murder charge.”
When defendants cannot pay, “they use a third-party bail bonds business that pays for their bail in exchange for a non-refundable fee of 10 percent of the bail total,” which is often still a large amount for low-income women, Norwood explains. A 2025 report from FWD.us states that “families spend an average of nearly $4,200 per year supporting an incarcerated loved one, and they lose an estimated average of $1,800 in monthly income.”
Norwood also highlights that “children of incarcerated parents also are more likely to experience depression, anxiety and behavioral challenges.” Andrea, a single mother of six who spent 12 days in jail, said, “My children was my biggest concern while I was in jail.”
Surraya Johnson, director of the Criminal Justice Reform Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said of bail reform’s ripple effects, “Generally people are released with some sort of conditions that are non-monetary, whether it’s completing substance use and abuse programs, or parenting classes or some sort of community service.”
Johnson added, “They’re able to improve their communities in that way. And they also have the ability to remain employed and to continue to contribute to their families financially, and can continue to provide stable homes for themselves and their children and any other generations that may be living with them.”
Before states like Illinois enacted bail reform laws, individuals accused of abuse could post bail and be released, often without survivors being notified.
The 19th article states that many advocates of bail reform believe this issue places survivors in danger. A Stanford University study found that nearly two-thirds of 650 surveyed incarcerated women in California had experienced intimate partner crime within a year before their offense.
The article discusses how the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act requires prosecutors to notify survivors about a defendant’s release and pretrial hearings.
This law also requires judges to use risk-based assessments informed by reports of a person’s criminal history, mental health, and community ties, The 19th notes.
“The prosecutors gather more information before hearing. That’s why they take longer,” said Amanda Pyron, president and CEO of the Network, in an interview with The 19th. “And defense attorneys are able to do a more robust information-gathering process, and so they’re able to make a case for a criminalized survivor at a first detention hearing that they don’t need to be incarcerated.”
Pyron told The 19th that by implementing this process, the defense in these cases is able to prove that their clients are not a danger to others, ensuring they are not held for unnecessary periods of time.
Critics of these laws, including Trump, argue that bail reform undermines public safety. An August 25 executive order, quoted in The 19th, claims that releasing individuals without bail “permits — even encourages — them to further endanger law-abiding, hard-working American citizens.”
Reform supporters, including Erin George, national policy director at the Bail Project, told The 19th that opposition is driven by efforts to protect “a predatory private bail bond industry and distract from real public safety solutions.”
Research cited in The 19th suggests that the negative outcomes critics fear have not materialized nationally.
The 19th cites New Jersey’s reform from 2014, which shows that the state’s jail population fell about 43 percent from 2012 to 2018, while defendants charged with new “indictable” crimes post-release remained around 14 percent.
In Chicago, The 19th reports, property crimes like burglary and shoplifting rose between 2023 and 2024, but violent crimes such as “aggravated assault, domestic violence, and homicides” remained stable.
Despite this, the Council on Criminal Justice found that early 2025 data from Chicago shows a “33 percent decline in violent crime rates.”
On gender-based violence survivors, The 19th references a WBEZ analysis that found more domestic violence defendants are being detained pretrial following the implementation of the Illinois bail reform law.
Advocates stress that bail reform alone cannot remedy deep racial and economic inequities in the American criminal justice system. Still, The 19th frames this law as a concrete step toward reducing unnecessary incarceration and improving survivor protections across the nation.
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